Band of the week: Mahmoud Refat

Mahmoud Refat is having yet another prolific week of performances. The 39-year-old musician only just returned from the Worldtronics Music Festival in Berlin with Bikya, the folktronica project he co-founded a few years back, and back in Cairo he’s been jumping from gig to gig, showing off his dynamic style.

Bikya is made up of Mahmoud Waly on bass and electronics, Maurice Louca on keyboard and sampler, and Mahmoud Refat on drums and synthesizer. In 2005, they burst onto the scene with a unique blend of drum 'n' bass rhythms and the contrasting clinks and clanks of Detroit techno, funky baselines, and an ornamental use of noise. Very early on, Bikya served as a reminder that music produced with originality and a sense of adventure exists in Egypt’s wide musical landscape, and they continue to function as such.

It’s been about a year since I’ve seen Bikya perform live. However, recent productions prove that the band has been evolving from its electronic-acoustic beginnings into something more sophisticated. While continuing to carry traces of their signature sound, the band’s new sonic approach is much bigger and more progressive than works heard on their debut album, released in 2007 by 100Copies.

But that’s the thing about Refat, he’s always pushing sonic boundaries while still engaging his listeners, luring the post-rave refugees into a visceral journey filled with glitchy roads and intelligent techno, inspiring audiences.

On Wednesday, I caught another of Refat's interesting performance guises during an intimate screening of a silent Walther Ruttmann film, “Berlin: Symphony of a Great City” (1927), at Falaki Theater in downtown Cairo. For the screening, Refat deconstructed and reconstructed the modernist documentary’s narrative through a riveting 65-minute live musical score. Ranging from ambient and white noise to abbreviated segments of glitch-hop and snippets of industrialized drum 'n' bass, the score made for one of the more unique film experiences I’ve had this year.

This Tuesday Refat will shift musical forms yet again with the debut performance, at new downtown venue Vent, of his upcoming album “Adventurous Republic,” scheduled for release on the 100Copies label early next year. Through a sneak peak of about four — vastly different — tracks on the album, I discovered that Refat’s musical energy is exploding wildly in all sonic directions. Composed, arranged, and produced entirely by Refat, “Adventurous Republic” is an eclectic postmodern cacophony of compositions featuring a range of musicians, from Egyptian singer Aya Metwali to American MC Khadafi Dub.

“The album is meant to be very diverse,” says Refat. “It features electronic musicians, traditional musicians, female singers — the concept is just a combination of the music I’ve been listening to and working with for the past few years. It’s also promoting the idea that there is no longer a standard genre or standard style in the music I do, as I feel that music should not be put in a box.”

So with a new sound, that cannot be instantly identified or labeled, Refat is again succeeding in pioneering a new format and pointing at the potential in progressive collaborations that deconstruct traditional music genres.