Various

In the 1980s and ‘90’s Egypt had a thriving cassette culture. With over 400 different companies producing music on tapes, Cairo was a hub of musical creativity. In a period where mass consumption was introduced through new economical reforms known as ‘el infitah’ the city was swamped by these small but revolutionary inventions of the cassette-tape and cassette player. This was a period in which Egypt's musical landscape was changing too,as the era of the ‘legendary classic Arab singer’ had ended the previous decade. By the ‘80s a new generation of youthful bands & singers had entered the scene giving Egypt a new sound. With the aid of the cassette-tape, singers were now able to independently record their own creations and distribute their songs without the need to get signed to big labels. By traveling abroad and through listening to imported cassette-tapes these young musicians were now able to hear music from different parts of the world. On bootleg cassettes foreign genres like disco, funk & rock were duplicated inspiring a new generation to create their own sound fusing elements of these foreign genres with sounds from their Arab heritage. 

Although in the ‘80’s western music genres like disco and funk were aligned with dancing at discotheques like Studio 54 in Manhattan (New York), this particular aspect did not spill over in the same scale as the West. WhileEgypt did have some ‘cabarets’, ‘casinohat’ and nightclubs where live bands performed and attendees came to dance, these venues were mostly for expats and some Egyptian elites. The thriving western ‘disco club scene’ simply didn’t fully fit into Egypt’s set of norms and values and thus these music practices became ‘glocalized’. This global ‘Disco’ phenomena adapted to Egypt’s local culture, taste and regulations. As such, the cassette and all the music that came with it found its way to one of Egypt’s cornerstones, the family home. Here, the cassette player became ‘essential’ to every ‘modern’ Egyptian family household. Cassettes were bought on the corner of the street at the koshk (kiosk) and played at home during different occasions. Whether playing cassettes to procrastinate while studying for exams, to sing and celebrate birthdays, to listen to during long car rides to the Red Sea, at the beach in Alexandria, the nady (sportclub) in Cairo, in your bedroom while going through heartbreaks, or to dance to at weddings. Like the people on the cover of this album’s artwork who were attending my parents' wedding. These were some of Egypt’s local adaptations of the ‘Disco Days’ or as I like to say in Arabic ‘Ayam el Disco’. Egypt’s own family ‘daily life’ practices that made up parts of Egypt’s cassette culture.

This Ayam El Disco selection has been the outcome of eight years-worth of cassette digging. While on one hand the search has helped me in understanding my own cultural heritage and hidden history it has also been fascinating to discover the sheer variety of different sounds that were created in Egypt in the ‘80’s and early ‘90’s. During this search I travelled and looked for rare cassette-tapes, found a few, borrowed and exchanged some with other collectors, lost a bunch when the cassette-tape decided to break down, but gladly archived and digitized most. The tracks on Ayam El Disco all originated in Egypt with some disco influences, but also with an early ‘90’s (proto) ‘Jeel’ sound - an Egyptian ‘90’s genre which translates to ‘generation’, coined by the legendary Cairo-based Libyan singer and producer Hamied el Shaeri. This genre would later fuel Egypt’s 2000-era pop music. But more importantly, this selection showcases a few of my favourite and unique sounds from a memorable era, some nostalgic to an Egyptian ear and some more obscure to any ear. Taken together, they tell the stories of a generation that paid homage to Arab musical heritage while looking independently for their own new sound. And just like our previous compilation Sharayet El Disco, all of these songs are released for the first time on vinyl. A cocktail of up-, mid- & slow-tempo sounds to play in the discotheque or to enjoy from the comfort of your (family) home. I hope you’ll enjoy this selection of ‘Ayam El Disco’!