Men In Burka - Techno Allah (2013)

Formely involved in electronic band project Modern Witch, Kamran Khan now flexes his project – Men in Burka – in to express his Pakistani origins in America, in collaboration with Zoots and Strange Powers.

The promotion for Techno Allah boasts a mixture of modern electronica from Chicago house, hip-hop, electro and bounce. ‘Click-Click-Click’ comes in with an unsettling mid-range tone with a panjabi-style shuffle, and Nicky Minaj and gun samples chucked in to create an unsettling middle-eastern dirge reminiscent of a war-torn Pakistan.

‘Techno Allah’ kicks up a frenetic dance pace with 80s-style drum machines and synths, placed on sample voice stabs. ‘Azaadi’ is sample-based again with a semi hip-hop/semi traditional middle-eastern riff that sounds more like an interlude.

The B side of the album is more interesting and natural sounding, with the psychedelic riff of ‘Lamborghini Kashmir’ bringing a proper world-style flair to a contemporary beat. The menacing ‘Kumb Melah’ is militant in its drum snares and insidious background synth, again bringing heat through its traditionally styled middle-eastern melody and arabic synths. The EP is concluded through ‘More Khala”s discordant higher synth keys over a middle-eastern tribal dirge that is dark and exuberant.

All in all, Techno Allah is simply-done, and needs no embellishment to impart its dark and exotic middle-eastern dancefloor aesthetics through the beats, and holds promise of furthering of cultural awareness within the westernised mindframe of America through electronica.


Tracks

1 Click Click Click
2 Techno Allah
3 Azaadi
4 Lamborghini Kashmir
5 Kumb Melah
6 More Khala