Arooj Aftab has launched a brand new Khruangbin remix of her track “raat ki rani.”
Khruangbin and Aftab started work on the brand new model of the latter’s single shortly after ending a 2024 tour collectively. Aftab will proceed the tour this yr, taking part in quite a lot of festivals—together with Knoxville’s Huge Ears and Tennessee’s Bonnaroo—along with European and UK exhibits in London, Belfast, Budapest, Rome, Milan and Brighton. In Might 2024, she additionally co-curated the experimental Dutch music competition Le Guess Who?, reserving performances from herself, her father, Meshell Ndegeocello, Dina El Wedidi and extra.
First launched in 2024, “raat ki rani” attracts heavy inspiration from Brazilian maracatu music, which in flip incorporates distinctly nineties and noughties-style home grooves—it marked Aftab’s first use of vocal autotune. The track’s launch was accompanied by a music video, directed by Tessa Thompson.
“‘Raat Ki Rani’ is about a person whose allure, magnetism, and charisma floats through a beautiful evening garden party,” Aftab mentioned on the time.
The report acted because the lead single of Aftab’s Grammy-nominated album, Evening Reign, which arrived in Might 2024 on Verve Information. It adopted her acclaimed 2021 report Vulture Pleasure, which gained a Grammy for Finest International Music Efficiency in 2022 and made Aftab the first-ever Pakistani musician to win a Grammy.
Evening Reign featured company together with Philadelphia-based poet and musician Moor Mom; Ohio-based singer-songwriter-producer Cautious Clay; and composer and pianist Vijay Iyer. Iyer and Aftab beforehand labored collectively because the trio Love In Exile with multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily. Their self-titled debut report was launched in 2023 to vital acclaim, incomes two Grammy nominations for Finest Different Jazz Album and Finest International Music Efficiency (for the track “Shadow Forces.”)
