TUL8TE (Transliteration of the Arabic تووaster, to be understood and pronounced as the English expression “Too Late”) is an Egyptian artist whose news there is. The identity is not known, given that his face is constantly covered by a balaclava knitted, it is not known where he operates and does not understand how successful has come without any significant media support.
Only in the second half of 2024 did the MDLBEAST label landed in rapidly rise that is gaining a leading place in the Arab world's entertainment industry, but until then his music has had the support of independent houses With very small dimensions, which did not prevent the single “Layalina”, released at the beginning of 2024 as part of the album “Tesh Shabab”, of accumulating millions of streaming both on Spotify and on YouTube and on local platforms.
The mystery of the identity denied can perhaps play in its favor and has also been seen in Italy with the freed case, just as the originality of the proposed music is remarkable, but the same can be said of many other artists who have never succeeded To land the Lunario. Whatever the intertwining of the favorable factors, Tul8te is currently a top reality on the Egyptian music scene.
The album of the transition to the MDLBEAST was released on July 25, 2024, its official title in the Latin alphabet is “Cocktail Ghena'y” (musical cocktail), while in the Arabic one it is “كوكتيе غنائي لδفنarch تووδيت حصري█ piحب حب█” (transliteration : “Cocktail ghena'y el fannan tul8te hasriyyan el habayeb qalbi”), translatable as: “musical cocktail of the artist Tul8te, exclusively for my loved ones”.
The first song in the lineup, “Mateegy A3ady Aleiky”, opens with a pattern Percussivo who seems to refer to “Sympathy for the Devil” of the Rolling Stones, but it is an illusion that does not last: at the entrance of the other tools, the song turns into a mixture of Arab and flamenco pop, with the voice treated with Eco And Autouman (The latter is present throughout the album, but is used prudence, mainly to donate some timbre shade, without ever overwhelming the natural color of the artist's voice).
The result could remember Ghali's “dear Italy”, but with a production that looks more to independent music and more specifically to the current Bedroom Pop: After all, as stated by Tul8te, the album was made entirely in his room.
“Leh Benkhaby” is a pop jazzate shades loungewith a look towards the Música Popular Brazilirawhile “Habeeby Leh” marries a meager programmed rhythm, plausibly a derivative of the IQA 'Sa'idi (for an infarction on iqa'at of Arabic music, please refer to the excellent Database Maqam World), a echying voice that can refer to affection cloud rap (given that Tul8te is a singer in all respects and only occasionally does it try with rap) and a melody imbued with the romanticism of the classics of Arabic pop: the journalist Jubran Haddad hypothesizes it is a tribute to Amr Diab, one of the historical names of the Egyptian music, and his “habibi” (1988).
“Nafs El Kalam El Baghaneh” immerses himself in a blanket of atmosphere synthesizers and beats R&Bwhile “Ba'eet Waheed” returns to Flamenco, one of the sources of the greatest contamination in Arab pop, just think of the historic “Ouna” of the Libyan-Egyptian Hamid El Shari, who in 1987 was among the first local musicians to achieve success by marrying A flamenco arrangement to an ethereal vocal line modified by the echo. Moreover, it appears perfectly natural, given that the flamenco was born as a fusion between the gypsy and the Arab-Andalusa culture.
“Ba'eet Waheed” is also the first song in the lineup whose text non -traits of sentimental poles (perfectly functional to the songs, but not memorable, in itself), but of a feeling of existential loss that for some time has been crossing the slope for some time more refined than Arabic music (just think of Hamza Namira):
It is I who chose to live far away and hide from life,
And I saw so many people, but I have not found serenity.
Once I was naive, now I wonder what I have wrong,
A million questions, but there is not only one answer in my mind.
Why doesn't love come?
I stayed alone with the sky.
I have words within me who cannot be said, and I chose to live in the detachment.
Is there something that console us or something new that lightens your days?
And then you see something from afar, suddenly comes from you and suddenly you are afraid of it.
They follow “3Eneeki Loon el Sama Beleil”, one step away from Synthwave, and “Ezbet el Hagge Feen?”, Dowtempo on battery made with flangerboth with electric guitar solos on the ending, with a clear stamp the first, saturated and distorted the second. The latter has the other interesting text of the collection, again from the psychoanalytic cut:
We are walking, but we don't know where we are going,
lost in the streets and houses at night
And there is no one except us on the spot,
but it is usually crowded
And when it starts to rain, everyone closes the doors
and the days escape you from hand,
But perhaps all this are only illusions, tomorrow will reveal it
And we will forget what has passed, even if we have not achieved it.
And if this is not the way,
Okay, we are not troubled,
And we walk,
But where are we going?
The final “Lesa Baree '” is a transcontinental mutation, bringing up the two Americas (trend Bossa Novaverse rag) and the Arab world in the saving melodies of the refrain and the vowels carried out in the background.
The “Cocktail Ghena'y” project, however, has a second chapter: on November 15, 2024 in fact Tul8te public, both in audio format and in video format, the version Live Session of the disc, played in one take With a band of five anonymous musicians to accompany him.
Although the studio album is already excellent, the Live Session He manages to overcome him. If the ladder has been remedied, the songs are the same (with the only exception of “Lesa Baree '”, which was replaced by the hit of early 2024, “Layaline”) and the arrangements are almost identical, but with two substantial improvements : first, music has the opportunity to breathe (it demonstrates the 30 minutes of overall duration, against 22 of the original version), with more space for the solos and digressions; second, the postproduction is much less heavy and this makes the sound more organic.
Listening to the Live Session Not only do the originality and value of the songs emerge, but also those of the musicians involved: just think of the unprecedented piano queue sauce In “Mateegy A3ady Aleiky”, to the guitar solo in “3Eeeki Loon el Sama Beleil”, decidedly more virtuous than the original one, or to the extensive introductions of “Leh Benkhaby” and “Nafs el Kalam el Baghaneh”.
With its vast range of solutions, the music of Tul8te could intrigue fans even outside the Arab world, as the tour recently announced (February 9th will also play in Milan) and the interview released last October for the Grammy Awards website.
27/01/2025
Antonio Santini for SANREMO.FM