DAR DISKU

‘Dar-Disku’ comes from the 1970s Egyptian pop culture magazine of the same name and directly translates into ‘home of the disco’. Dar Disku is a label celebrating music from across Arabia. Founded by Mazen AlMaskati and Vish Matre in 2019; the label encompasses all things High NRG, New Beat, Strange and Pure.

Growing up less than a mile apart in Bahrain with a shared fascination with discovering new music, the duo quickly bonded over digging for unheard rarities and burning mixtapes to show friends and strangers, and this is something that’s never really changed. Whether at a house party, over a meal or at a local underground gig, chats about left field music would always spiral from one artist to the next and back, but more and more, talks about music turned into talks about culture and soon enough; home.

Mazen and Vish left Bahrain with pockets full of Radiohead, Aphex Twin, Daft Punk and Benga. But looking back across the water, the music their parents played on dusty turntables, the art and culture that surrounded them their entire lives became more than nostalgic, it became hypnotically fascinating. From learning about the microtonal arrangements in Farsi music to learning south Indian polyrhythms and the almost forgotten 1970s punk rock and psychedelia movements in Egypt, Lebanon and Iran, they couldn’t help but think, what comes next? Both have spent the last few years discovering incredible sub-genres such as Khaliji hiNRG, Rai, ArabiDisco, Habibi House, Sawt and Bollywood and within 12 months, Dar Disku has shared the stage with artists such as Habibi Funk, Nabihah Iqbal and Awesome Tapes From Africa, Palms Trax, Esa and played iconic venues and festivals across the world (Lisbon, Dublin, Mumbai, Istanbul, Paris, Bahrain, Lovebox Festival, Le Mellotron & more). Dar Disku have also been featured on Nabihah Iqbal’s BBC Radio residency, for which they curated a guest mix inspired by night time drives in Bahrain and have recently been named as residents on the iconic Worldwide FM.

The label’s first release ‘DD 001’ featured a heavyweight edit from label collaborator ‘Moving Still’ and has received critical acclaim from the likes of Resident Advisor, Clash, Mille World and i-D. Fast forward into summer 2019, Dar Disku Records have released DD002, a Moving Still edit of ‘Sidi Mansour’ by Algerian pop star, ‘Cheba Yamina’. Their latest ‘DD003 and DD004’ releases have been played on dance-floors from London to Lisbon, Mumbai to Moscow and Amsterdam to Amman by the likes of DJ Seinfeld, Esa, Job, Palms Trax, Hunee and more. With four releases already under the belt, they continue to dig deeper into the forgotten crates of the middle-east. DD002 was recently named one of Resident Advisor’s tracks of the year.

Dar Disku’s live sets have been described as “a journey across arabia and beyond delving into a voyage into the unknown”. With bookings such as Boiler Room and Palms Trax XOYO residency – one thing for certain, however, is their tendency to create eclectic and spontaneous selections which transport audiences into lands far away.