The Hizz Collective: acoustic disruption and claiming space in the Cairo soundscape

ABSTRACT This paper examines Hizz, a collective started in Cairo, Egypt, that acts as record label, venue, gallery and artist residency. Through analysing the music that Hizz produces, its spaces and distribution methods, its organisation as a collective, and its international connections, it argues that Hizz creates new forms of social engagement and defiant politics in Cairo, thereby disrupting engrained aesthetic and social patterns. Hizz reflects a post-revolution creativity, pitted against an authoritarian regime and an elitist neo-liberal dance music scene. The aesthetic of Hizz incorporates ambient, noise and post-punk, Sufi mawlid music, mahraganat, and chaabi, in a way that enacts a conversation between different sonic elements in their surroundings. Such local relevance sees Hizz defying the strict class boundaries that define Egyptian society. This paper combines two years of field work in Cairo following the Hizz collective since their inception in 2017, further interviews, and literature on sound and space.