You can tell a lot about what a Brigton Festival is going to be like by its guest director. Sometimes they are dead serious and sometimes they are funny. Some are musicians, some are artists and sometimes it’s political. This year the role has fallen to Nabihah Iqbal to entertain us. Not a name I had heard of before, it turns out she is a DJ/broadcaster/ethnomusicologist.

Nabihah studied a joint honours BA in History and Ethnomusicology at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), and it was during her time as an undergraduate that her musical horizons widened further. She took classes in various music styles including Gamelan and the Turkish classical tradition. Her main performance instrument was the Sitar. After SOAS, she moved to Cambridge University to study a postgraduate MPhil focused on South African history. She then moved back to London, where she did a law conversion degree, passed the Bar and simultaneously started getting more involved in throwing parties and making music.

She has a radio show on NTS Radio and has released an album for the label Ninja Tunes. She has also been an artist in residence at Somerset House.

She has travelled the world DJing and performing and has appeared on most radio stations by the loks of it.

Check out this house music set she did for Mixmag.

Or something funkier from the Dekmantel podcast

I am guessing after a relatively music free couple of years we might good dose of world music this year. Maybe some afrobeats or amapiano. You never know.

You can also get a special “Dinked” edition of her new album from Resident Records.