This is the genesis story of Baskot Lel Baltageyya (which, loosely translated, means Cookies for Thugs), a project headed by musician Adham Zidan and poet Anwar Dabbour. On the Egyptian band’s debut album, Dabbour’s colloquial Arabic lyrics paint visions of a world spinning into chaos, where reality often veers into absurdity. Zidan, who produced the album in addition to writing the music, harnesses the madness with serpentine melodies that mingle and dance over hypnotic grooves like a psychedelic version of ring-around-the-rosie.

Zidan plays keyboards and sings in The Invisible Hands alongside Sublime Frequencies/Sun City Girls co-founder Alan Bishop. He honed his own style of lo-fi folk on Today Is Tomorrow, and is now expanding his horizons even further with Baskot Lel Baltageyya. Over the past decade, he has gained widespread recognition for his work as a musician, producer, recordist and mixer. Dubbed “Egypt’s musical renaissance man” by Scene Noise in 2019, he’s lent his keen ear to numerous other projects—such as Youssra El Hawary’s No’oum Nasyeen (2017), Tarkamt’s Live at the Necropolis (2018), Maurice Louca’s Elephantine (2019), Natik Awayez’s Manbarani (2020), and Nancy Mounir’s Nozhet El Nofous (2022)—and has collaborated with many of the biggest names in the region’s independent music scene, including Tamer Abu Ghazaleh, Nadah El Shazly, Raed Yassin and Sam Shalabi.

Limited 12'' Vinyl LP with double 12'' insert (500 only).