Nadah el Shazly, omg the return of

Nadah’s debut album ‘Ahwar’ was one of my favourite albums of 2017 (though I’m pretty sure I didn’t hear it until some time in 2018 - that whole era is hazy to me now) - art-rock at its finest: dense, knotty, spiky, inscrutable, beautiful.

I had waited so long for a follow-up that I had given up believing one would be forthcoming. But here we are and ‘Laini Tani’ exists and is a thing in the world and it’s gorgeous.

It’s also extremely different to ‘Ahwar’: whereas that was clearly the work of a group of musicians executing the vision of a guiding mind, this feels like the manifestation of the guiding mind alone: no longer swampy and murky and opaque but like a lit-up piece of glass, composed of multi-tracked vocals and synths and fluttering rhythms. That makes it sound like this is an easier or more inviting album than its predecessor. It’s not: more like, the battles that Nadah used to fight have simply been moved upwards onto higher terrain, with changes to the landscape and the weapons but not the stakes.

Even vocally, the transition feels momentous: a shift towards deliberateness, even when Nadah gets low and slow here it sounds like a witch’s incantation. “Banit” in particular needs to be heard to be believed, like industrial pop devised by a society with no contact with popular music since about 1981 (I wonder: does Nadah like ‘Odyshape’??). Likewise “Dafaa Robaai” and “Ghrozestein”: music for car crashes in a busy metropolis which abandoned road rules long ago. (Sometimes on these tracks I’m put in mind of FSOL’s ‘ISDN’ - but with a heightened sense of urgency and presence)

I was trying to think of the best antecedent for this switch-up and, oddly, the one that occurred to me was the stylistic shift from Yeasayer’s ‘All Hour Cymbals’ to ‘Odd Blood’ - the move is similar both sonically and in tone - though I’m reluctant to lean too much into that comparison given how different Nadah is musically on multiple grounds.

And also, anyway! It’s lovely! Listen to it, and listen to ‘Ahwar’ as well if you haven’t already.

Lovely is right. Only just started listening but the drum sound on Kaabi Aali is delicious

I’m surprised and perplexed that this excellent album does not appear to be garnering more interest. Many of the posts about Nadah’s first album ILM’s archives feature the poster regretting they did not check it out sooner - don’t make the same mistake again, ILM!

I like some of it, but at times the "loveliness" seems too similar track after track.

this is really great. that makes two Montreal artists Tim F has introduced me to this year, truly embarrassing lol

haha Rob have you heard the Thanya Iyer album?

It’s been a big year for me in terms of “Canadian artists who claim they’re not into crystals but seem suspiciously knowledgeable about their purported properties and effects”

Just wanted to say that I have been listening to this and the Yasmine Hamdan album both, and they are both great!

xp nope! but I did listen to KIND back in 2020. I think that one was a little too crystal-adjacent for me lol, but I'll check the new one out.

there is a strong penchant for new age/"zen"/woo-woo here in Quebec that I don't fully understand as an outsider, prob due to post-Quiet Revolution secularization / collapse of Catholicism. It seems mostly harmless but having lived in Oregon (where it more clearly fed into conspirituality stuff) I'm a little suspicious too

yeah the extent of my own musical wooffiliation this year has caused a certain amount of soulsearching. I should probably speak to a local shaman about it.