L IS FOR LEBANON

Yasmine Hamdan became famous through Soapkills, a lo-fi collective that gave us an Arabic folky trip-hop, and then worked with CocoRosie and Nouvelle Vague, the idols of the gentle and wicked in the 00s. Now she’s on her own and making mesmerizing, tender and fiercely intelligent music. Whether it’s for daydreaming while you don’t understand lyrics except for the breathy “habibi”, or reacting to the message in the translation as Hamdan makes a political stand in her “Balad” video, for dancing it off to the album of remixes, we all need Yasmine Hamdan in our life. ⠀

Also, I just realized she is signed with Mike Patton’s Ipecac records—I’m obsessed with everything Patton touches—whoa.