Listening to Afaq Art Production's new single "Bejamalen (With Beauty)" performed by Ziad Kamal feels a bit like stepping out of a chaotic, sun-baked street into the sudden, vaulted vastness of an ancient sanctuary. https://open.spotify.com/album/7GbecQZE3yVH6enRaALvLk?si=seoOwwjgS_SE3MsuPg-rxw Kamal is only twenty-four. He manages the rather fascinating trick of balancing his daily life as a Mechatronics engineer with a profound, academic mastery of Eastern Maqams, violin, and oud. Here,...

Sometimes you just need a track that gives you permission to stop being nice. There is a specific kind of freedom in realizing you do not actually have to pretend to like everyone on your feed, and that realization hits like a physical shockwave the second this beat drops. It is loud, it is funny, and it completely refuses to apologize for taking up space....