ZAINAB has released her debut EP ‘Canal View’ via Ninja Tune’s Technicolour label. The six-track record takes its name from the Lahore neighbourhood where the Pakistan-born, New York-based artist, born Zainab Anwar, grew up.
The EP fuses New York house with musical styles from the Global South, South Asia and the Arab world. “It’s locally influenced, but globally oriented,” Anwar said. “I see the EP as an amalgamation of Lahore and New York: looking back and forth between both places and asking what those sounds become when they come together.”
The release coincides with new single ‘Banglahore’, featuring British-Bengali producer and rapper Surya Sen. Anwar described the track as a “collaboration between Bangladesh and Pakistan.” She added: “There’s a difficult history there, and a lot of animosity, so the song is symbolic in that way too. It’s about saying: we can get along. I love my Bangladeshi brothers and sisters, and vice versa.”
The EP also includes the previously released single ‘Jadoo’, written and sung in Anwar’s native language Urdu, as well as ‘Her Eyes’ and ‘Ayewah!’, the latter a collaboration with LA-based artist Tony Quattro.
