Deena Abdelwahed deserves a thread of her own (North African style techno)

She's been doing percussive techno with influences from her native Tunisia for a while now, and it's quite good. Really sui generis stuff IMO, I dunno if "techno" is even the proper label for it? Anyway, her new EP "Dhakar" dropped a couple of weeks ago, and it might be her best yet:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vjau0toqp28

I think this the first time she's had proper vocals on a track instead of just some disembodied snippets? Dunno who the vocalist is, but I love it!

The two EPs she released last year with remixes of tracks from her 2018 album (by folks like Karen Gwyer and Ital Tek) were dope too. I think this is my favourite remix on them:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0E-li1RjiJU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6ZVhr9B_O8

Such quality stuff she's put out in the last 3 years.

She's totally obsession worthy, thanks for reminding me to give the new EP a listen

I posted the new one here, if you like this there might some other stuff there you would enjoy, like the new bergsonist record:
Rolling (post-)Reconstructed Club Music 2020

According to the RA review that's her pitched-down vocal doing 'A Night in Tunisia'? Idk, reviews often get that sort of thing wrong, but no one else is credited (could be a sample though).

Ha, I hadn't thought it could be her cos I assumed it was a dude, but yeah, the voice could be pitched down.

The vocals are quite muffled, so they're a bit hard to decipher, but she seems to be changing some of the words of "A Night in Tunisia" too? Like, instead of "a tale too exotic to be told" it's "a tale too toxic"?

yeah I really like everything I've heard, haven't had enough context to write at all though

Good call on the lyrics, I guess I assumed she brought in or sampled a North African singer, but it's cool if it's her.

This is #braggin2020 but I wasn't familiar with her work until she bought my album on bandcamp, then I went back and checked it out. Still hoping something shows up in a mix someday. :)

Oh, I hadn't realised they'd actually made a video for "Tawa":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHenteKhVDk

Though what it is about, I have little idea...

I think what I like the most about her tracks is the drum programming, it's so out there and evocative and dense.

Have you heard DJ Haram, TSVI/Anunaku, DJ Plead, etc?

No, who are they?

Producers who I think you would enjoy!

Ah, okay. Do they sound similar to Abdelwahed?

I mean, I think so, that's why I mentioned them? It depends what you're looking for, but they all have great syncopated percussion-based tracks that rely heavily on Arabic/Middle Eastern/north African samples. Can recommend lots of other stuff in a similar vein but those came to mind immediately.