Palestinian, Lebanese & British DJ Kamar (pronounced Ah-Mar) presents Tealeaves, dedicated to exploring sound through migration.
In each show, Kamar highlights music made by artists who have migrated, both new and old, from a plethora of time and places, zoning in on their culture, community and influences, exploring how the movement of people has intersected with music and sound.
This time, Kamar welcomes Bahraini-born, Bristol-based musician and DJ duo, Dar Disku to the show. '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 till today, this remains changed. Whether at a house party, over a traditional Bahraini 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 quick succession, Dar Disku has shared the stage with artists such as Four Tet, Habibi Funk, Nabihah Iqbal, Young Marco, Palms Trax and Esa and have played iconic venues and festivals across the world (recent stops include Mumbai, Istanbul, Paris, Bahrain, Lost Village Festival, Lovebox Festival, Glastonbury Festival & more).
