In the run up to Issue 2 being released, we bring you parts of Issue 1 you may have missed…
EGYPTIAN HIP HOP hankers effortlessly with the spanking new 2010 directive: ANYTHING goes.
Debut single ‘Wild Human Child’, might borrow a harmonious groove or two from Section 25 and other Factory Records alumni (Manchester is EHH’s zone after all), but they’re padding this stuff out with tapped guitar poly-rhythms, looping synthesis, and a neat line in emotive contemporary pop savvy.
Much has been made of their baffling name, age, Smiths connections and such; but the very musical reality takes a distractible generation awash with cultural access, driving to rethink the very modes of constructing music in an increasingly genre-less landscape.
With the blogosphere on side and Late Of the Pier’s Sam Eastgate on current recording duties, the very scope of possibility Egyptian Hip Hop possess within their sound is their biggest draw right now.
Mid-tour with IS TROPICAL, the band has this to say:
1. I was just sitting on an overland train full of teenage school kids talking about Lady Gaga and banging minimal house. Given that you’re both the kids on the train AND the banging minimal house, how do you find juggling academia with super hotly tipped dance-troupe? Are these alternate realities for you right now, or do the two things feed into each other neatly?
Luckily studying and doing this has worked hand in hand (so far) because me, Louis and Nick are all on music courses at a college specializing in music. It’s a little harder for Alex as he’s doing Art at a normal college but he does study music tech too.
2. Is tropical, kindness, Delphic: do you feel an affiliation with these guys? It’s like pop music went interstellar cool with its influences and grooves.
Yeah I think there’s definitely a slight link between us, but just in the fact that we’re all making pop with unusual influences etc.
3. How come it took so long for bands to realize they could cross-pollinate any genre and aesthetic? With the same regard, how do you perceive your own sound? Are you into sticking within particular parameters, or open to complete aural technicolour?
I don’t think it was a matter of taking long, some groups have probably been disregarding genre for a long, long time but its just taken a while for the public to appreciate the ultra influenced approach we and others before us have taken.
4. Everyone obviously has to mention that you’re from Manchester, so I will too. I heard there’s a new hacienda opening? This makes me think everybody’s always trying to recreate the past. Do you feel connected to this heritage? Is this GOOD for the Manchester scene?
It’s good for Manchester in the sense that there’s something going on in the city, however it’s not so good to dwell on the past like that.
5. So you’re pretty much in the middle of playing a tour with Is tropical. How’s it been going? Has anything weird or gross happened yet?
Nothing that strange happened so far. I would explain but I’ve pretty much just written out basically everything we’ve done / has happened so far in here: http://blogs.myspace.com/egyptianhiphop
6. You guys seem pretty vibed over Ariel Pink cuz I read your twitter. Someone told me Ariel has mild tourettes apparently. What’s something nice you want to say about his awesome music?
Ariel is a genius and him and his band are very nice people. He’s hugely under-rated because of his approach to recording when actually he’s written more pop hits than Prince.
WORDS – Andrew Doig
PHOTOS – Tom Cockram