The Dutch Electro Chaabi DJ duo of Joost Heijthuijsen and Yannick Verhoeven, aka Cairo Liberation Front, have announced a handful of European tour dates. The Eurabia Tour, satirically named after the Islamophobic conspiracy theory, will visit a number of festivals throughout Europe, bringing their high-octane sound to a host of new audiences. To mark the announcement, they’ve released a new mixtape – listen above and take a look at the dates at the foot of the piece.
The Quietus’ John Doran spoke to the group in his latest Guardian column on new Middle Eastern and African music. On their choice to champion the new Egyptian sound, Joost explains: "We grew up on rap, and just as Public Enemy main man Chuck D once said that hip-hop was the CNN of black America, we thought that chaabi must be the Al Jazeera of the Arab youth. It doesn’t portray the political reality of Tahrir Square, simply the reality of everyday life in working class neighbourhoods, normally inaccessible for white middle class people like us. So we thought, via music we can maybe connect with their reality; to show that perhaps our Arab counterparts have more in common with us than we think. We also thought that we could promote this other Arab voice in the Western world."
JUNE
Sat 14 – De Spot, Middelburg, The Netherlands
Sat 21 – La Fête de la Musique, Paris, France
Fri 27 – Urban Spree, Berlin, Germany
Sat 28 – Fusion Festival, Lärz, Germany
JULY
Sun 20 – Dour Festival, Dour, Belgium
