You might remember Fatima Al Qadiri from the excellent 'Warn-U' EP that she put out last year as Ayshay. Now she's back under her own name, with an EP named after, and inspired by the Sega Megadrive Desert Storm game that Fatima used to play with her sister while they were growing up in Kuwait.
As you might expect from its influences, there are undertones of war and religion on these tracks, and an eerie feeling of the calm in the eye of the storm. 'Ghost Raid' starts the EP off with the most beat-driven track here, a skittery percussion-led piece that feels a bit short - you feel it could go on building and building but it stops too soon.
'Oil Well' features the sound of a rifle being loaded and fired as part of its percussion, while a spectral voice oohs and aahs the melody. 'War Games' ratchets up the beats as well as the oppressive feel, with deeper voices underpinning a track that gets more involving as it progresses, adding more synths and even a snatch of organ before the end.
The title track is the most powerful on the record, perfectly marrying the sound of drums with keyboard riffs and manipulated vocals to produce something that provides a nagging sense of dread, like the feeling someone is following you home on a dark night but you can never see them. On the flip side the final track 'Hydra' is much more upbeat. If you added a nifty beat it could easily be something that Jamie xx had put out.
'Desert Strike' is out now on Fade to Mind records. You can listen to the whole EP below.
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