Dar Disku's live sets have often been described as “a journey across Arabia and beyond delving into a voyage into the unknown”. One thing for certain, however, is their tendency to create eclectic and spontaneous selections which transport audiences into lands far away.

'Dar Disku' literally translates to 'home of the disco' and is taken from the 70s Egyptian zine of the same name. Dar Disku is a label celebrating music from across Arabia. Founded by Mazen AlMaskati and Vish Mhatre 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 this is something that’s never really changed. Whether at a house party, over a 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 so on enough: home.

Mazen and Vish left Bahrain with pockets full of Radiohead, Aphex Twin and Daft Punk. 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 hi-NRG, Rai, ArabiDisco, Habibi House, Sawt and Bollywood and within 12 months, Dar Disku has shared the stage with artists such as Habibi Funk, Nabihah Iqbal and Awesome Tapes From Africa, Palms Trax, Esa and played iconic venues and festivals across the world.

Image by Flaneur+Company