cool songs (and how i found em) #1: Nour - "Wana"
In the process of writing my rambling “on convenience,” I realized how much I miss the single-song writeup format (see my nearly 1000 posts in The Music Ninja archives). It’s also the perfect opportunity to exemplify the manual process of discovering music referenced in there. I hope you enjoy these songs and find some cool new outlets/ways of finding music along the way!
the song: Nour - “Wana”
As you may have noticed, I’ve been really interested in diving into music coming from the Arab diaspora. Aside from being an excellent pop song, “Wana,” opened up my mind a bit in terms of the kind of music coming from Egypt. Most of what I’ve heard to-date has either been hip-hop or pop with some traditional influences. “Wana” strikes the perfect balance between the new wave of dance-informed pop music (ie pinkpantheress, NewJeans) and the dreamy, chillwave of the late 2000s (ie Toro y Moi, Washed Out etc.). In case you’re wondering, “Wana” translates literally to “and I” but “me too” would be a more accurate interpretation.
how i found it: Scene Noise
I’ve got to give credit to Baseer, my friend and longtime blogging partner in crime, for sending this one to me via IG. But it led me to discover Scene Noise, which reports on local culture in the middle east. I’m already starting to find some cool music through their IG and website. Check out the video from them below in which Nour breaks down the song (with English translations).
Through this video, I also discovered Kubbara who produced the track. He’s got some pretty cool modular jams…
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