Death Disco: Walk Like An Egyptian

They've never been near the river Nile and their music certainly doesn't fall into the category of hip-hop. Instead, the teenage four-piece Egyptian Hip Hop create rhythm-led songs with a funk edge and nods to their roots in Manchester.

In spite of only forming in late 2008, Egyptian Hip Hop have already found themselves riding on a wave of hype, building a notable live fanbase and being named as one of the bands to watch this year by publications such as Dazed and Confused, The Guardian, Loud & Quiet, Clash, NME and Vice. Comparisons have been drawn between the group and MGMT and not only because of their catchy choruses, asymmetrical haircuts and driving synth lines, but also because of Egyptian Hip Hop's youthful vigour and on-stage presence. All of this after just two song demos being released and a handful of live gigs, including one in Shoreditch where the band had to turn down the pleas for an encore by stating that they had "run out of songs".

The band cite their influences as being as far reaching as Clark, Oingo Boingo and Meredith Monk. Egyptian Hip Hop's brand of melodic English grunge has already won them a support slot with Gold Panda, a gig with Django Django, a live session on Steve Lamacq's show and the attention of Johnny Marr from The Smiths, who taught the band's bass player Nick Delap guitar technique and donated some guitar pedals to the group.

At the moment the group are still unsigned but at this rate they should be snapped up relatively soon. In the meantime their debut single Wild Human Child is out on 1 Feb on the Hit Club label, who have already released records by Wolf Gang and Is Tropical. ‘The double single is loose, epic and propulsive, with an insight into the group's musical background of past bands and side projects. Produced by Sam Eastgate of Late Of The Pier, it comes backed by Heavenly, an electronic nugget laced with a fragile vocal. The single is released on a limited run of 300 vinyl, each one in hand-tied dust jackets.

The release of Wild Human Child is supported by a UK tour with dates in London, Manchester, Glasgow, Leeds, Sheffield and Liverpool, before the group support Delphic on their forthcoming NME tour.