We’ve been around since 2014 DJing cassettes from our impeccably curated and seemingly unique collection of high-octane Auto-tuned folk, desert blues, and digital-dhol anthems from the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. We’ve played headline sets at some of London’s finest venues, including Café Oto, Passing Clouds, and RyeWax. For the past few years, however, our main outlet has been our regular show on NTS Radio, which gives us a chance to chat a little about the origins and lyrics of some of the music we play.
You can catch up on all our shows here. http://www.nts.live/shows/pirate-modernity.
Pirate Modernity began when we (Abeera Arif-Bashir and Timothy Cooper) were working together in Lahore, and travelling frequently to Peshawar on business. We became fascinated by the labyrinthine media market Nistrabad in Peshawar and started to build a substantial collection cassettes from Peshawar.
Tristan Bath from the Wire Magazine and The Quietus said of our first mixtape, “If there need be any evidence that music is as vital and powerful today than it’s ever been, spreading hope in the face of adversity, this tape is it.” We’ve also had lots of coverage in print form, most notably in a feature article in Huck Magazine, and this recent online feature on ReOrient.
Timothy P. A. Cooper 