Nadah El Shazly – Laini Tani
Nadah El Shazly’s solo return smooths out much of her electric eccentricity, but she remains capable of crackling brilliance
It’s eight years since Nadah El Shazly’s debut, but her works since – particularly the astounding Pollution Opera with Elvin Brandhi – point to an artist still open to bringing in new sounds, one with a freeform approach to influence, intent on channelling as much as possible through her blend of experimental electronics and traditional Arabic influences. This instinct remains on Laini Tani, songs clearly bearing the influence of myriad sonic worlds, but it’s strange that they manage – at least early doors – to coalesce into music quite so characterless. Her voice remains gorgeous, but tracks like Banit and Elnadaha never lift beyond a plod; never seizing in the way you know her work can.
Then, from the throbbing opening of Enti Fi Neama it’s as if a switch has flipped, and the record suddenly finds its feet. Yes the drums kick harder, and the synth tones are crunchier, but it’s the way they clash together that really makes them grab, as on Dafaa Robaai where the sickly bass sloshes into something wonky and undefinable by its stuttering drums. Closer Ghorzetein is the undoubted highlight though, a nocturnal hurtle through a collapsing cityscape, a crystallisation of the arresting magpie-ism of her best work; it’s a shame it’s a feeling only patchily displayed on this album.
Listen to: Ghorzentein, Laini Tani, Dafaa Robaai