Listen to Dar Disku’s three-hour introduction to dance music from the SWANA region

Welcome back to Selections, a series of artist-curated playlists from those in the know.

Since friends Vish Matre and Mazen AlMaskati formed Dar Disku in 2019, the independent label and DJ collective has been connecting music cultures in Bahrain, the UK and beyond.

Having made music together since they were teenagers, the duo’s wide-roaming sets and original tracks combine their own evolving tastes, powered by a drive for deep discovery and their long tradition of swapping recommendations across genres and decades.

Ultimately, Dar Disku created “a space where people from the SWANA (South-west Asian and North African) region and beyond could exist, learn, create and develop,” AlMaskati told Crack last year. “The label was the platform and the DJing aspect was a way to communicate our voice in a way that we felt was the loudest and clearest. It soon expanded and became more of a bridge of cultures – from home and away.”

Here, the pair put together a “three-hour portal to take you through the SWANA landscape”.

“This is our more leftfield introduction to popular dance music from the region, featuring various eclectic sub genres that influenced popular music today,” they explain. “The playlist features music from artists both old and new, including Bandari, Khaleeji maqam, Belgian Moroccan new beat, dabke, Bahraini psychedelic guitar music, Egyptian drill, raï, cosmic Bollywood disco, Jordanian club music and more.”