Biography
Kuwaiti musician, DJ, and conceptual artist Fatima Al Qadiri ranks among the most inventive electronic producers of the 2010s and 2020s. Her intricate, confrontational compositions probe war alongside questions of sociocultural identity by merging current strains of dance music with experimental electronics. Violent sound effects surface inside the abstract constructions of Desert Strike (2012) and Brute (2016), whereas the 2017 EP Shaneera centers on Arab queer club culture and the 2021 full-length Medieval Femme delivers dreamy ambient pop shaped by classical poetry written by Arab women.
Born in Senegal and raised in Kuwait, Al Qadiri studied at several U.S. colleges before completing a bachelor’s degree at New York University. She entered the scene in 2011 via two EPs: Warn-U, issued as Ayshay on Tri Angle, and Genre-Specific Xperience on UNO. The latter in particular demonstrated her fluency across multiple dance-music idioms, traversing juke and trance within a single release. A follow-up digital-only EP supplied remixes by DJ Rashad, Nguzunguzu, Ikonika, and Girl Unit. Night Slugs’ Fade to Mind imprint then released Desert Strike, the ominous 2012 EP whose title and tone reference the video game Desert Strike: Return to the Gulf that Al Qadiri and her sister played in Kuwait in the immediate aftermath of the Gulf War.
Al Qadiri next aligned with Kode9’s Hyperdub label for the 2014 album Asiatisch, framed as an audio travelogue through “an imagined China.” Operating as Future Brown alongside Nguzunguzu and J-Cush, she contributed to a self-titled album issued by Warp in 2015. Brute, her second Hyperdub album, appeared the following year and drew from televised images of the 2014–2015 anti-police brutality protests across the United States. Shaneera, a five-track EP exploring Arab queer culture, arrived in 2017. Her first complete film soundtrack, Atlantics, followed in 2019. Returning to Hyperdub in 2021, she issued Medieval Femme, an ethereal long-player built on Arabesque melodies and poetic lyrics.
Born in Senegal and raised in Kuwait, Al Qadiri studied at several U.S. colleges before completing a bachelor’s degree at New York University. She entered the scene in 2011 via two EPs: Warn-U, issued as Ayshay on Tri Angle, and Genre-Specific Xperience on UNO. The latter in particular demonstrated her fluency across multiple dance-music idioms, traversing juke and trance within a single release. A follow-up digital-only EP supplied remixes by DJ Rashad, Nguzunguzu, Ikonika, and Girl Unit. Night Slugs’ Fade to Mind imprint then released Desert Strike, the ominous 2012 EP whose title and tone reference the video game Desert Strike: Return to the Gulf that Al Qadiri and her sister played in Kuwait in the immediate aftermath of the Gulf War.
Al Qadiri next aligned with Kode9’s Hyperdub label for the 2014 album Asiatisch, framed as an audio travelogue through “an imagined China.” Operating as Future Brown alongside Nguzunguzu and J-Cush, she contributed to a self-titled album issued by Warp in 2015. Brute, her second Hyperdub album, appeared the following year and drew from televised images of the 2014–2015 anti-police brutality protests across the United States. Shaneera, a five-track EP exploring Arab queer culture, arrived in 2017. Her first complete film soundtrack, Atlantics, followed in 2019. Returning to Hyperdub in 2021, she issued Medieval Femme, an ethereal long-player built on Arabesque melodies and poetic lyrics.
Albums
L'étranger
2025
Seeking Mavis Beacon (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
2024
Skincare (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
2024
Gumar EP
2023
Medieval Femme
2021
Atlantics (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
2019
Shaneera EP
2017
Brute
2016
Asiatisch
2014
Singles
