Egyptian Producer/DJ Hermit Releases Minimal House Track ‘Herb’

Egyptian DJ and producer Hassan Hermit, aka Hermit, drops a groovy minimal house track ‘Herb’.

Based between Cairo and Montreal, Hermit has cemented himself as a prominent figure in the house music community since the early 2000s, with his thoughtfully curated selections and colourful mixes of deep and minimal house. His sets have taken over dance floors at acclaimed venues and clubs like Stereo and Circus Afterhours, as well as famous festivals like Egypt’s Sandbox. When he is not wearing the DJing hat or on residency duties at El Gouna’s party series Playhaus, Hermit is running his own record label, Cairo Xpress.

His latest release, ‘Herb’, is a sleek and simple groove that opens with a solid drum pattern on a loop that Hermit then decorates with bumpy rhythms, layering prominent kicks, crisp hi-hats and warped deep basslines and synths on a stretched vocal sample of a quirky Arabic meme that a friend had sent to him.

“I was going through some new music I downloaded to play at Playhaus and noticed how one of my favourite tracks on there was a really simple one with a nice groove and not that many elements. So, I decided to start something with that same approach,” Hassan Hermit tells SceneNoise. “To create a nice simple groove and not worry about filling it with too many elements, or spending too much time trying to perfect it then getting bored of it by the time it's done.”

Mastered by Paris’ DJ Steaw, Hermit crafted ‘Herb’ in merely a couple of hours and automatically released it on his Bandcamp without a second thought. “I decided to start my own Bandcamp page where I can release tracks like that without having to worry about making it fit a certain sound or label,” Hassan shares.