Underground music flourishes in post-revolution Egypt

At a club in downtown Cairo, Ahmed Saleh pumps electronic beats from his laptop as Abdullah Miniawy chants to a cheering crowd, the duo part of a wave of new talent on Egypt’s underground music scene.

Egyptian musician Abdullah Miniawy performs at a nightclub in Cairo on October 26, 2016. Mohamed El Shahed/AFP
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CAIRO // At a club in downtown Cairo, Ahmed Saleh pumps electronic beats from his laptop as Abdullah Miniawy chants to a cheering crowd, the duo part of a wave of new talent on Egypt’s underground music scene.

Emerging artists are creating an eclectic selection of hip-hop, dubstep, electronic and rock music, with some influenced by traditional Egyptian sounds.

The movement began in the mid-2000s as musicians bypassed record labels to reach their listeners directly via the web. But it was boosted by Egypt’s 2011 uprising which toppled longtime dictator Hosni Mubarak.

“This movement began finding an audience because it has become accessible on the internet, instead of the market being dominated by those who release CDs,” says Tamer Abu Ghazaleh, a Cairo-born Palestinian musician who cofounded Ma3azef, an online Arab music magazine.

From the second half of the 2000s, musicians have used websites such as SoundCloud, YouTube, and Facebook to publish and promote their music.

That has challenged record labels’ traditional gatekeeper role between artists and audiences.

“This is the first time in Egypt, at least since the 1920s, where music really represents the people in a direct way, without any intermediary,” says Mahmoud Refat, founder of record label 100Copies Music.

The birth of Mahraganat music around the same period also reflected this shift in the industry.

Emerging from working-class neighbourhoods, it became Egypt’s most listened-to genre – with little involvement from record companies.

Using cheap or free software, young men began mixing traditional Egyptian music with electronic sounds, creating loud, eclectic beats.

Meanwhile, artists began networking online, says musician Rami Abadir, who released his first official album with Canadian record label DMT Records in May.

“This didn’t exist until 2009 or 2010, or it existed but on a very small scale,” he says.

The genre found a small but growing audience in a country where according to the United Nations, 40 per cent of the population is between 10 and 20 years old. And the revolution in 2011 boosted the movement.

“A lot of things took a push with what happened in 2011 and 2012 and the revolution,” says Maurice Louca, composer of the acclaimed 2014 electronic album Benhayyi Al Baghbaghan (Salute the Parrot).

While most of the music was non-political, a security void made it easier to open spaces and organise festivals.

“There was a very nice atmosphere where anyone who wanted to do anything, could just do it,” says Abadir.

Venues like Vent, which opened in 2013, promoted new, experimental music.

Many have since closed, but several still hold regular live sessions.

The security void in Egypt has since been mostly closed, with human rights groups accusing the administration of clamping down on freedom of expression. But the country’s underground music scene still seems to be flourishing.

Although many musicians have second jobs to make a living, some have been able to go full-time, performing at home and abroad.

Saleh has performed up to five times a month this year, including gigs with Alexandria-based psychedelic and electronic rock band Telepoetic, while Louca has given 50 concerts overseas this year alone.

Meanwhile, some tracks by Egyptian hip-hop artists Abyusif and Ahmed Kamel have been played more than a quarter of a million times on SoundCloud.

“Hip-hop in Egypt is like that. Its first and last place is the internet,” says Refat, whose label caters to independent and Mahraganat musicians.

The current situation contrasts with the 1990s, when authorities cracked down on concerts and accused attendees of practising Satanism, according to Louca.

“We felt like we were in an absolute desert,” he says.

And while the scene centres around Cairo, other musicians in the region have flourished online.

“We kind of found it staggering the amount of talent around, and a lot of people doing what we consider to be very high-quality music,” says Abdel-Rahman Hussein, co-founder of Dandin, a Middle East music platform.

The wave of new music “expresses real things for the people,” says Abu Ghazaleh. “This is what this music is doing, so it has no place to go but grow further.”

* Agence France-Presse