May: 7 bass & club releases you need to hear this month

Deena Abdelwahed 'Klabb' (InFiné)

Even though Deena Abdelwahed’s debut EP is only just being released now, she’s been making waves for a while. Before turning to electronic production, the Tunisian producer sang for a jazz band and was a member of the DJ collective World Full Of Bass. Last year, she won CTM’s Radio Lab prize for her radio art performance ‘All Hail Mother Internet’, which grappled with questions of identity formation. ‘Klabb’ also draws on several sonic themes, including bass and ambient music as well as traditional North African and West Asian instrumentation. ‘Jalel Eddin Rrumi’ chops vocal samples of Tunisian activist Jalel Brick with echoing chords played on the ganûn (an Arabic string instrument), while. ‘Walk On, Nothing To See Here’ is a drum-heavy statement rife with claps and echoes. On ‘Ena Essbab’, Abdelwahed’s vocals rebound off each other, backed by hand drums and whirring textures in a disorienting chorus. Her multidisciplinary background pays off here, as she candidly maps how the local and the global interact with assorted sonic technologies.

8/10