I first heard of Yunis when I co-curated with Ma3azef (Arabic language music magazine) our Nisf Madeena compilation to benefit artists who have lost their studios and homes from the Beirut explosion in summer 2020. Yunis was suggested by one of the editors at Ma3azef and the track he submitted, which I ended up mastering, really blew me away so I had to dig more into his discography.

I was really taken by the simplicity of his arrangements; from his virtuoso synth playing, distorted and totally mangled drums (they have like a mp3 bit crushed quality to them), steady bass lines and accordion. He is of course very much a new gen product of Mahraganat and Shaa’bi style of Egyptian music but he takes it a step further by totally deconstructing it down to its core elements and keeping it wordless which is my favorite thing. No vocals…while borrowing elements from Sufi moulids and folk tradition of storytelling. Like you can tell he can absolutely shred even more on the synth but he stays so restrained in keeping with the very drone nature of his music and not wanting to snap the listener out of the heady mood of the music.

Some tracks sound almost the same but I think Yunis knows that he has found his pocket. I can imagine his music blasting from a busted taxi in Cairo at 2am while crossing the nile river into Zamalek over 6th October Bridge. There is something that is very nostalgic to me about his sound and yet extremely tight and a cut above what is expected from Shaa’bi music. I have become a huge fan of his and I hope more folks get clued into his delirious and beautifully rhythmic world he created.

-Heba Kadry