

Slightly deviating from the Tri Angle label’s blending of beat wizardry and haunted left-field music, the New York (by way of Kuwait) transplant Fatima Al Qadiri, a.k.a. Ayshay, serves up an arresting debut EP. The title track opens with a contrast of vocal drones that have been pitched both up and down. Over these, Ayshay sings in Arabic in a chilling falsetto. Barely audible rhythms seep in and out of the mix to create something equally unsettling and beautiful. “Shaytan” exaggerates those high and low drones to sound like futuristic chanting of ancient Muslim prayers. Here we get a more upfront presence in Ayshay’s high-layered inflections, filtered through cascading walls of reverb. Playing like the third panel of an aural triptych, “Jemsheed” brings up the deepest vocal drone to the front of the mix, letting Ayshay’s floating voice hide subliminally in the background. And since it sounds remarkably similar to the preceding tracks, she thoughtfully bookends the EP with a 12-minute remix of “Warn-U,” replete with skittering wooden percussion going head-to-head with fluttering analog keyboard chirps.