Mutamassik

Coming at us on the Egyptian break beat tip, this female producer has been dropping hints of her unique sound for the past few years, and it’s a collection of these past works that make up her debut release. She wastes no time drawing you into her world of Arabic hip-hop mastery as the first cut drops shrieking instrumentation and choppy turntable scratches, making you flinch at first, but then allowing yourself to get roped into such a beautifully odd sound. Things really get interesting when we approach "Babomb3,” where a fierce wooden drum solo is joined by a sinister string section and a dirty, dirty loop that sounds like RZA through a clock radio speaker. Mutamassik shines very bright when she’s asked to keep her beats more organised to create a fabric for the likes of 4th Pyramid to thread through. Though his presence really isn’t the hottest, the Toronto MC has the honour to flow over one of the record’s best beats, combining gigantic drum crashes with a female hook to create a wall of sound almost too large for verses. The record sort of loses the plot a little towards the end as things just get a little too abstract, overly noisy and sloppy, especially when full-on drum and bass kicks in. This pasted-together debut from the New York-based producer is well worth a listen based on its originality alone, and there are plenty of beautiful moments, but there are a few styles that need to be fine-tuned or omitted before we really see some magic from Mutamassik.