Casablanca-born, Paris-based duo WAHM kick off 2021 on Solomun’s Diynamic Music with Escape, the Hamburg label’s first release of the year and the pair’s most complete statement yet. Across four warm, retro-tinged melodic cuts, they thread together old Arabic love songs and 80s guitar textures, building something that works both on the club floor and in the crossover playlists Diynamic increasingly champions.
Opening track Ya Layt (feat. Bani) sets the tone: a slow-burning, four-to-the-floor groove wrapped around Bani’s smoky vocal, which carries the plaintive ache of the Arabic love song tradition it draws from. The pads are wide and dewy, the bassline round and unhurried, and the track unfolds with the patience of a duo who trust their melody to do the work.
Title track Escape drops the vocal and leans fully into the 80s side of their sound—shimmering guitar lines and crisp, FM-synth tones over a rolling house groove. It’s the most obviously floor-focused moment here, all release and barely any tension, the kind of record that feels inevitable in a Solomun closing set.
Oceans (feat. Sophia Louise) is the EP’s emotional peak. Over its seven and a half minutes, Louise’s breathy, weightless vocal floats above a deeper, more nocturnal arrangement—rolling toms, a dubby low end and pads that bloom slowly, the drums sitting back just enough to let the melody breathe.
Closing track Undefeated pulls things back towards the dancefloor, its stabbing chords and driving bassline a fittingly confident sign-off. With Escape, WAHM have delivered a record that is both warm and purposeful, heritage woven into melody rather than decoration. Diynamic’s year is off to a strong start.
