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Nadah El Shazly
Laini Tani
Backward - 2025
Michael Panontin
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Nadah El Shazly may have started out in a Misfits cover band, but the Egyptian-bred singer, composer and producer has long since established herself as a key player in the new Arab underground. Her 2017 debut Ahwar, especially its jaw-droppingly psychedelic track 'Palmyra', was a mesmerizing mix of electronica and classical Egyptian motifs that even earned her a cover shot in the July 2018 issue of The Wire as part of 'Cairo's New Wave'.
Fast-forward to 2025 and El Shazly, having since shifted from chaotic Cairo to multicultural Montreal, has hardly missed a beat. Laini Tani, her second solo album proper, follows on the heels of a couple of equally interesting records from 2024: a collaboration with noise artist Elvin Brandhi called Pollution Opera and a soundtrack for Fyzal Boulifa's film The Damned Don't Cry.
On coming to Canada, El Shazly told OFFKEY magazine, "I am happy about the move because I get to see myself in different contexts. I wanted to write about what I miss in Cairo. The people, places, the inside jokes, the sun, the small day-to-day. The things you don't realise that matter till they're gone."
El Shazly actually started spending time in the Quebec metropolis as far back as 2014, having been drawn there by its large Arab and experimental music scenes. "It's an amazing place to write and to make music," she told the Globe and Mail. "You have a lot of space, and it's very calm. But it can also be loud, if you want it to be."
Laini Tani was recorded at the city's revered Hotel2Tango studio by Radwan Ghazi Moumneh, whose Jerusalem in My Heart has for years pushed the boundaries of experimental Arab music and video. That said, Laini Tani is a surprisingly accessible record, kicking things off with a couple of standout tracks: 'Elnadaha', where El Shazly's vocals shimmer above woozy, vaguely East Asian electronics, and the slow-burning 'Kaabi Aali', probably the closest thing here to a proper single. From there, it takes a few deeper dives into more experimental territory (the feedback-heavy 'Enti Fi Neama' and the electro-groovy 'Dafaa Robaii') before resurfacing for the dreamy and achingly beautiful 'Labkha'. That track is without a doubt the high point of the disc, as it straddles - musically at least - a range of emotions from longing and melancholia to hope and possibility.
Laini Tani is a powerful disc and well worth checking out.
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