Singer-songwriter prodigy and Abdullah Siddiqui released a new track on Friday in collaboration with Talha Anjum, half of Karachi-based rapper duo Young Stunners.
The track, titled 'surface', is the first single off Siddiqui's latest and fourth album dead Beat poets: side B, which comes out this Sunday.
Listen to it here:
"Somewhere along the process of making my last album, I became hopelessly addicted to the feeling of writing songs with diaristic honesty and earnestness," said Siddiqui in an Instagram post announcing the release.
Siddiqui and Talha Anjum share writing and performance credits for 'surface', while Siddiqui also produced, mixed and mastered, and Areesh Zubair shot the album cover.
He added that side B is a continuation of the "earnest, diaristic" songwriting of his previous album dead Beat poets, but more "sonically explorative" in line with his indie, electro-pop sound.
"I made very little effort to make this record sound consistent... But that inconsistency was completely honest to my circumstance — I made this album in a time when my professional life was the best it’s ever been and my personal life was collapsing altogether," he elaborated.
"So I allowed myself to translate that messiness into sound, and to let go of some of the meticulousness that’s defined my work in the past."
Previously, Siddiqui has collaborated and produced for Fawad Khan, Meesha Shafi, Shamoon Ismail and Aima Baig. As an 18-year-old, he was nominated for a Lux Style Award in 2018 for Best Emerging Talent, and was also behind Peshawar Zalmi's anthem 'Kingdom' in PSL6.
Siddiqui also became the latest Pakistani to make it to Forbes' 30 Under 30 Asia List earlier this year. According to Forbes, he began "producing English-language electronic music at the age of 11 and started releasing it as an independent artist when he was 16."