Today Egyptian duo Baskot Lel Baltageyya, the project of musician Adham Zidan and poet Anwar Dabbour, have announced the release of their self-titled debut album. A lauded musician, producer, recordist and mixer, Zidan is no stranger to creative collaborations. Other than playing keyboards and singing in The Invisible Hands alongside Sublime Frequencies/Sun City Girls co-founder Alan Bishop, he is known for his standout contribution to stellar projects like Youssra El Hawary’s No’oum Nasyeen (2017), Tarkamt’s Live at the Necropolis (2018), Maurice Louca’s Elephantine (2019), Natik Awayez’s Manbarani (2020), and Nancy Mounir’s Nozhet El Nofous (2022) and his collaborations with the likes of Tamer Abu Ghazaleh, Nadah El Shazly, Raed Yassin and Sam Shalabi.

Sprouted from an audio-visual project, Baskot Lel Baltageyya, which translates as something like Cookies for Thugs, is not just a band or a record. “You can think of Baskot as a genre of music, a name of a group, or as something to consume,” Zidan explained. On the upcoming album, Dabbour’s colloquial Arabic lyrics depict the dark absurdist humour present in Egyptian popular culture in the 90s.

Baskot Lel Baltageyya is set for release on May 5th through Wall of Sound (digital) / Akuphone (vinyl) and ahead of it we can hear the first thrilling single ‘Esh 3arrafak? (You Know Nothing)’. It comes with an accompanying video made by Super7amdy and you can watch it below.