Pop alchemists do the Egyptian
IF the chaps from Trade Descriptions ever got round to investigating the Manchester music scene the first culprits they would be apprehending would be Egyptian Hip Hop.
Trading in music which is neither very Egyptian nor very hip hop, these four teenagers from Stockport are flagrant musical fraudsters and utterly proud of it.
"It's a great name though, isn't it?" laughs Alex Hewett, the band's singer/keyboardist. "I went on Wikipedia and there's loads about the real Egyptian hip hop. It goes back centuries. It's really quite interesting but it's got nothing to do with our band."
"We just like the sound of the name," adds drummer Alex Pierce. "It seems to sum up the approach of this band. Nothing is planned out, we're sort of making it all up as we go along."
'Making it up as we go along' - you probably couldn't get a more apt summary of Egyptian Hip Hip's pop masterplan thus far.
Formed at the start of this year, Egyptian Hip Hop are undoubtedly Manchester music's finest example of how youthful exuberance can be the best pop rocket fuel. All 17, the foursome might be best described as an episode of Channel 4's Skins come to life: hyperactive, manic, glued to their Facebook profiles and liable to turn your living room into a full-on rave scene given half the opportunity and a crate of alcopops.
Seated in Manchester venue Deaf Institute on a rain-sodden September afternoon, the four (the two Alex's, plus guitarists/bassists Nick Delap and Louis Stevenson Miller) are looking visibly downcast about their day-to-day activities - to their annoyance, they are just about to enrol for the start of term at college.
But when talk switches to their musical plans, they come alive in the way only four adolescent pop alchemists can.
Away from the classroom, and in Manchester's nocturnal music dens, they brilliantly work their Egyptian Hip Hop black magic: a world where Cure-ish melodies, rumbling Joy Division intensity, propulsive math-rock and even swampy grunge pop all weave their way into a spell-binding sonic pop potion.
Shoehorn
All in all, they just about shoehorn every possible genre into their fiendish toxic-pop blasts - well, except actual Egyptian hip hop, obviously.
"Everything about this band's sound is random," explains drummer Alex. "It's a complete accident how we arrived at this sound. The band started off with us mucking around making songs on a computer.
"Then suddenly, all these promoters wanted us to start playing gigs. We weren't very prepared! Everything seems like one big accident."
He's got a fair point - but most accidents don't travel as far or as gloriously as Egyptian Hip Hop have done in the few short months they've been together.
Formed at the start of the year from the ashes of their previous band, the cult-ishly adored Copy Cats (Alex laughs: "We were a bit of a joke. More about fashion that the music"), these four have since sailed effortlessly from playing house parties in Stockport to most recently performing high-profile shows at Mad Ferret Festival.
NME
The NME have showered the band with much praise, even inventing a new musical genre to describe the band's magpie musical approach ("They called us 'Doss Wave'! Just where do they get these mad definitions from?" exclaims Nick).
Where most Manc teenage bands might work their way through the under-age gig circuit, at nights like Same Teens, Egyptian Hip Hop are clearly reading from the grown-ups rock'n'roll rulebook.
"The best thing about this band is that we don't get spoken about with all the other teen stuff," enthuses Alex.
And that's undoubtedly where Egyptian Hip Hop's musical maturity comes into very sharp focus. They may claim to have little affinity with the city's current music scene ("The Courteeners? All that lad rock nonsense needs to disappear forever," says Alex), but there's more than a hint of old school Manc adventure coursing through the band's DNA.
Tracks like the genre-hopping Rad Pit (yes, all their song titles are that daft) nod to Joy Division's stirring intensity or A Certain Ratio's experimental euphoria; tumbling post-punk which can make you laugh, dance and cry (often at the same time).
But don't dare suggest Egyptian Hip Hop have anything to do with 2009's fixation with all things eighties.
Alex rants: "I think this whole eighties bandwagon is the worst thing to happen in music for ages. La Roux? She's terrible. I could write better pop songs than her in my sleep but I'd rather not, and do something more interesting with this band instead."
A band to make us laugh, dance, and even destroy the increasingly tiresome eighties bandwagon? The possibilities for where Egyptian Hip Hop might next take their happy pop accident are limitless. And though they might shamelessly flaunt the Trades Description Act, the four are thinking of ways to rectify that problem.
"I think the one big goal for this band would be to play in Egypt," smiles Alex. "Definitely inside a pyramid! Just think how good that would be."
Egyptian Hip Hop play Night and Day on Friday, September 4. Visit - myspace.com/egyptianhiphop.
Published: Thu, 03 September, 2009
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