Last Breath is a mesmerizing plunge into dark realms, cavernous spaces, and worlds of echo. A gorgeous Turkish female singing voice suspends time, circling and sparring with itself, setting the stage for a massive half step riddim. The huge one-drop is worth the wait, the kick so huge it will suck the air from a room and open a chasm beneath the dance floor. Echoing snares create a hallucinatory space that will have trainspotters and dancers alike calling for rewinds.
Last Deal is another 140 bpm power play, bringing El Mahdy's love for classic dub and reggae closer to the surface than ever. A huge riddim guided by a Stalag-style baseline and dancehall-flavored doubling of kick & snare power the tune, leaving plenty of space for samples, balmy barnyard ambience, and then a vertiginous plunge into the fevered, cavernous spaces he is known for. This tune has it all, merging the familiar with the strange into an absolutely unique dubwise brew.
Of Algerian origin, now living and working in Turkey, Mahdy's star has risen quickly. His debut LP on Portland's Boomarm Nation sold out instantly, and earned spots on many end-of-year lists, recognized for his wildly original mix of broken, blunted beats and ethnographic sampladelia. Numerous magazine features and subsequent releases on Boomarm, Deep Medi (alongside dubstep star Gantz), and most recently Danse Noire have cemented Mahdy's rep as an artist with an utterly unique vision, grounded in his own lived experience, but unlimited by geography, language, culture or genre constraints. Limited vinyl - 700 copies for the world - Designed and hand screen printed by Polygon Press.
