Released: 28/04/23 (delayed from 31/03/23)
I was only hipped to the phenomenal talents of the London-based musician, producer, DJ and broadcaster Nabihah Iqbal last year, when Dreamhouse went on a night out to the excellent General Echo Sound System at Walthamstow Trades Hall. Iqbal was the headline DJ that night, spinning the finest lover’s rock, and it’s no exaggeration to say that she had everyone in the palm of her hand. The joy and goodwill radiating out from the DJ booth was infectious, and we drank too much craft ale, moved our uncoordinated limbs around in a way that could only charitably be described as ‘dancing’, and grinned like idiots all night. Perfect.
I was thus compelled to seek out her debut album, Weighing of the Heart, and was blown away by its mystical VHS dream pop, whose marriage of Doldrums, Halcyon Digest-era Deerhunter and Slowdive provides the perfect sonic counterpoint to Iqbal’s exquisite and haunting sung-spoken vocals. Sophomore LP Dreamer (written and recorded at Somerset House, where Iqbal is currently an artist-in-residence), released on Ninja Tune, sticks (thankfully) to the same enchanting blueprint, the production and songwriting somehow even richer and more complex than that of the first LP. To paraphrase Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville, I don’t know much, but I know that this will be on our end-of-year list.