Nabihah Iqbal

London-based songwriter, DJ, and ethnomusicologist Nabihah Iqbal makes left-field dance music as well as dreamy indie pop. She originally produced abstract pop and deep house using the moniker Throwing Shade before reverting to her given name in 2017 and releasing her post-punk-influenced debut full-length, Weighing of the Heart. A studio burglary forced her to abandon an album she was in the process of recording, but she returned in 2023 with Dreamer, which switched between blissful dance and meditative ambient pop.
Nabihah Iqbal studied ethnomusicology before graduating from the University of Cambridge with an MPhil in African history, and in 2013 she began hosting a free-form program on Internet station NTS Radio, showcasing music from around the world. Her debut single as Throwing Shade, “Mystic Places,” was released on Kassem Mosse’s Ominira label. She delivered EPs on No Pain in Pop and Happy Skull, and was commissioned to write a piece in response to the 2014 Turner Prize. She also sang on SOPHIE’s single “Lemonade.” By 2016, she had signed a deal with Ninja Tune, which released her club-friendly House of Silk EP.
Retiring the Throwing Shade moniker, Iqbal set to work on her debut album in 2017, writing, recording, and producing it in her studio space in London and taking things in a different direction by combining electronics with more alternative pop. Preceded by the single “Something More,” the album, Weighing of the Heart, was released in December. She spent several years working on its follow-up, but in 2020, thieves broke into her studio and stole her equipment. She salvaged demos and unfinished songs from her lost album and released them as Blue Magic Gentle Magic, then moved on and started a new record from scratch. Incorporating harmonium, acoustic guitar, and sitar as well as live drums and synths, 2023′s Dreamer is an introspective, emotionally rich album ranging from meditative drone to driving post-punk and ecstatic house. ~ Rich Wilson & Paul Simpson