Album Spotlight: Dirty Backseat - El 7ofra

A cornerstone of Cairo’s underground music scene for years, Egyptian artist Dirty Backseat (AKA Moe Hani) has built a reputation on his raw sound that bridges post-punk, electronic and melancholic dream pop. With his latest EP, ‘El 7ofra’, Hani steps further outside the box, crafting a body of work that is as fresh as it is emotionally charged.

The title, translating to “The Hole”, is a reflection of the self-doubt, isolation and unrest that shaped the record. “I was going through a time when I was very down. That’s when the concept of ‘El 7ofra’ came to me,” Hani shares. “But I didn’t know, going into it, that I was writing an album. It just came together from that headspace.”

Musically, ‘El 7ofra’ is among his most diverse releases to date, pushing beyond the structured songwriting he was accustomed to. Working with longtime collaborators Mostafa Adel and Belal Ali at Audio Bus, Moe found new ways to push his music forward, with production and engineering that brought out the EP’s intensity and depth.

That spirit of experimentation is evident throughout, balancing high-energy post-punk rhythms with spacey, ambient textures. The result is an EP that shifts between chaos and calm, urgency and introspection.

Since launching Dirty Backseat in 2017, Moe has continually reshaped his sound, refusing to settle into one lane. With ‘El 7ofra’, Dirty Backseat proves he’s still evolving, still pushing himself. It’s a record that challenges expectations - both his own and those of the scene he’s helped shape.

Watch the full interview here: