Ayshay: The Guardian's new band of the day

Fatima Al Qadiri, aka Ayshay, is a Senegal-born, Kuwait-raised, NYC-based producer and electronic artist who 'pays haunting homage to the Islamic songs of her childhood by tweaking them beyond all recognition.' She was the Guardian's new band of the day last week, and serves up some truly interesting sounds!

The three tracks on her debut WARN-U EP, from the excellent Tri Angle Label, are 'inspired by the Islamic religious songs that have been floating around her auditory environs since childhood', and are created entirely out of her own voice, filtered and layered and variously tweaked beyond all recognition. You would never imagine that all the sounds were vocal-based, rather that they were a series of electronic instruments, ridden hard. And although pop musicians from Todd Rundgren to Björk have done things like this before, there is still something startling about Ayshay's achievement here as she seeks to pay haunting homage to the muezzin wails and prayers of her youth.

The title track WARN-U, as singing in tongues goes, is pretty arthouse and atonal. Ayshay's voice is simultaneously deepened to approximate notes plucked on a bass, and pitch-shifted to go soaring and high, like Ofra Haza on heat. The vocals are so stretched they start to resemble ectoplasmic gloop, to be manipulated at will. The video is equally trippy, check it out below.

WARN-U is released on 26 September in LP, CD, and digital formats. The EP includes a twelve-minute remix (of the entire release) by Los Angeles producing duo Nguzunguzu. Hear an excerpt below (and watch the trippy video). 

Ayshay - WARN-U by TriAngleRecords