Nayoo’s ‘Tsree7’ EP is a Club-Ready Tribute to Levantine Folk Music
Rather than treating folk as a decorative sample, the Jordanian producer builds the entire project around it, resisting the trend of fetishising regional sounds in favour of something intentional.
Berlin-based Jordanian producer Nayoo has recently released a new EP, ‘Tsree7’, a club-ready tribute to Levantine folk music.
Rather than treating folk as a decorative sample or a nostalgic motif, Nayoo builds the entire project around it, resisting the trend of fetishising regional sounds in favour of something deeper and more intentional. Co-produced with El 8ight, Nayoo blends traditional tribal rhythms like Mijwiz and Choby with bass-driven electronics, glitches and low-end frequencies, preserving the raw, celebratory spirit of the source material while giving it somewhat of a dancefloor-friendly facelift.
The EP consists of three tracks. On the opener, ‘Tmreer’, Nayoo flips Egyptian shaabi star Mahmoud El Leithy’s classic ‘Am El Magal’ into a percussive, hip-shaking cut rooted in urban shami textures. Following suit, on the title track, ‘Tsree7’, he dives headfirst into the sounds of his family tribe, incorporating sonic traditions like mjana and dandana with witty wordplay, framing collective memory and folklore within a club context.
The closing track ‘Saree3’ kicks off with a pulsating riq arrangement that turns into a cluster of darbuka-driven basslines, Arabic hip-hop-inspired vocal chops and relentless shaabi-infused synths, rounding out the EP with a sharp, eclectic twist.
As a whole, Nayoo frames his ‘Tsree7’ EP as a response to the cultural erasure caused by geopolitical shifts across the Levantine region, channelling both his grief and celebration of his cultural heritage, and further immortalizing almost forgotten traditions.
