Brute (album)

Last updated
Brute
BruteFatimaAlQadiri.jpg
Studio album by
Released4 March 2016
Genre
Length36:19
Label Hyperdub
Producer Fatima Al Qadiri
Fatima Al Qadiri chronology
Asiatisch
(2014)
Brute
(2016)
Shaneera
(2017)
Singles from Brute
  1. "Battery"
    Released: 20 January 2016
  2. "Power"
    Released: 23 February 2016

Brute is the second studio album of Kuwait musician Fatima Al Qadiri. A protest album inspired by events such as the 2015 Baltimore protests and the Ferguson unrest, the album regards the authoritarian power of law enforcement in the United States and the illusion of democracy existing in the western part of the world. Its cover art by Josh Kline, Babok Radboy, and Joerg Lohse is a photograph of one of the "police teletubbies" found in Kline's art piece "Freedom," which was intended to present how civil rights were being destroyed in the 21st century. Brute features samples of the Ferguson protest, an MSNBC report of Occupy Wall Street by Lawrence O'Donnell, and an interview with a former member of the LAPD regarding the power of the police.

Contents

Released by Hyperdub in March 2016, Brute garnered significant media coverage for its unique political message and was listed in the "Top Ten Protest Albums Of 2016" by Shadowproof , where Kevin Gosztola described it as "the kind of album that will carry even more resonance in the era of President Donald Trump." However, some critics with more mixed opinions towards the album called it too similar to Qadiri's previous releases and found many of the songs too formless.

History

Ferguson Day 6, Picture 44.png
FreddieGrayPrecinctProtest.jpg
Events such as the Ferguson unrest (left) and the Baltimore protests (right) inspired Fatima Al Qadiri to make a protest record.

Qadiri's experience of having her civil rights violated came from living in Kuwait during its invasion by Iraqi forces in 1990. [2] It wasn't until she attended college that she moved to the United States. As she discussed how she viewed the nation before she relocated there, "I thought America was kind of like Saved By The Bell and Fresh Prince of Bel Air . I'd never set foot there before going to college, and my perception of it was very far removed from the truth, you know? I was just consuming American TV shows like any other kid around the world, thinking, "Oh, it looks so cute." [3] In terms of experience in protesting, Qadiri was at a counterdemonstration at a 1999 IMF World Bank meeting: "I have never seen more cops in my entire life. There were cops on horses, on bicycles, on bikes, in cars, and helicopters. I had a very rude awakening; the illusions of American democracy were destroyed almost immediately." [4] She was also involved in the New York City protests against the 2003 invasion of Iraq. [4]

Qadiri began writing her second album around February/March 2015 [5] while having to be a room in her Kuwait home due to a knee injury. [4] She was looking at a "horrific news cycle" on Twitter, being "moved" by seeing protests going on in places such as Ferguson and Baltimore. [4] This inspired Qadiri to make a record about protesting halfway into writing her next record. [4] As she explained in a Thump interview, "I also saw it as a challenge. Protest music is a real genre, and there have been a lot of seminal protest records. I just feel like this is a subject that's moving a lot of people right now." [4] The first track completed for the album was "Blood Moon," the last "Oubliette." [4] On 20 January 2016, it was announced that Brute would be released on 4 March 2016 and "Battery" was issued as the lead single. [6] On 23 February 2016, Mixmag held a Q&A with Brown and premiered the track "Power." [5] Hyperdub officially released the album on 4 March 2016. [6]

Concept

Compared by some reviewers to Hyperdub founder Kode9's album Nothing (2015) and his pieces about sonic warfare such as Sonic Warfare: Sound, Affect, and the Ecology of Fear (2009), [4] [1] Brute deals with themes of neoliberal fascism, [4] authoritarianism, [4] the rising power of the law enforcement system in the United States, [4] and how democracy in the western part of the world is just a mirage. [2] Qadiri described it as a record in the vein of What's Going On (1971) by Marvin Gaye [7] but also explained that it wasn't really a protest record: “It’s a meditation, but a very unpleasant one. Protest music is a call-to-action, and this is not a call-to-action because I don’t know what the action should be. I’m not offering any solutions, just saying that this is the reality.” [4] Qadiri said that she titled the album Brute as a "counterpoint to the word thug, and how people over the last two years have been speaking about thugs in the media." [5] She also reasoned that the word "contains a lot of savagery, but also, in English, it has a dandyish, almost 1950s-ish sense." [8]

Composition and sound design

"[Qadiri] is less a beat maker, more a builder of atmospheric soundscapes, twisting choral harmonies with grime bass lines and doomy dubstep effects. Her conceptual sounds don’t offer blatant, fist pumping anthems for movements like Occupy and Black Lives Matter, instead they seem to capture the still, quiet tension that echoes around that space between the battle lines and point to the psychological fear on both sides."

— Kevin Irwin of The Line of Best Fit [9]

Lawrence O'Donnell's MSNBC report on Occupy Wall Street appears on Brute. Lawrence O'Donnell at the NYC Women's March on 5th Ave. Jan 21st, 2017.jpg
Lawrence O'Donnell's MSNBC report on Occupy Wall Street appears on Brute.

Now critic Kevin Ritchie wrote that Brute has a minimal structure that "sometimes ris[es] in urgency before falling into a deceptive calm." [10] Brute is the most grime-infused LP in Qadiri's discography, where signature sounds of the genre such as gunshot-like percussion, swirling melodies, and police siren sound effects are heard many times throughout. [11] Joseph Burnett of Dusted found it unlike most other grime music in that it is "rarely propulsive or tailored for the dancefloor, but rather shift and shake convulsively under the weight of stark, metronomic beats, swathes of sub-bass and icy synth swirls." [12] As AllMusic journalist Andy Kellman wrote, Brute uses a combination of real and simulated representations of protests that gives it a surreal feal. [1]

Because of its themes regarding powerful law enforcement, Brute has a hopeless tone [4] coming from its use of what Jake Hulyer labeled as a "cold and stark" structure with an "unwelcoming atmosphere:" [2] audio snippets of political rallies, [4] minor chord structures, [4] synthesized horns and choirs, [4] [1] and what Lhooq described as "apocalyptic bass growls." [4] While Brute is based on an American topic, Qadiri wanted to make the instrumentals "universal" for listeners from other nations across the globe to resonate with it. [3] Brute's oppressive vibe comes from the drum parts, specifically how the "rhythms jerk at unnatural angles" and "beats drop like gas canisters," wrote Stephen Worthy of Mixmag . [13] As Derek Staples of Consequence of Sound wrote, "an ever-lurking, low-end wake" is used to represent an omnipresent police force on songs like “Battery” and “10-34," "volatile harmonic breaks signifying the frequent outbursts of unmitigated violence." [14]

There are very few glimpses of a hopeful vibe on the album, such as the electronic harps on the song "Fragmentation." [13] As Burnett wrote, "Listen carefully, and there is a certain melodicism nestled in the heart of this album, but its tone is despairing and subdued, glimmers of light in a dark and uncaring world." [12] Burnett suggested that the reason for this was to show the "uncaring, uncomprehending barrier that has been erected between authority and the demos, between the powerful and the rest of us." [12]

Brute primarily uses three audio sources, which Qadiri garnered via YouTube. [4] One of them is a live recording of the Ferguson protests where a policeman says "you are no longer peacefully assembling" through a Long Range Acoustic Device, [4] which is played over an industrial instrumental on the opening track "Endzone." [12] Another one is Lawrence O'Donnell's MSNBC report about Occupy Wall Street, which Qadiri chose for his "classic American media news anchor voice," [3] which is played on the track "Blows." [11] It is filtered in reverb and "half-shrouded" in synthesizers to put the listener far away from what's really going, wrote Rory Gibb of The Quietus . [11] Another one of these samples is an interview with a former LAPD sergeant named Cheryl Dorsey about the power of police officers [4] which plays on the LP's closer "Power" over synthesized glass-breaking sounds. [1] The samples are used at a minimum "just to illustrate the context, to set the tone," Qadiri explained. [4]

Cover art

In early 2015, American artist Josh Kline produced an installation titled "Freedom" at the New Museum in New York. [3] [15] It centers on four "Police Teletubbies" in SWAT gear that block an area modeled after Zuccotti Park, the location of the Occupy Wall Street protests. [15] The art piece was meant to showcase how civil rights were being destroyed in the 21st century [15] and uses Qadiri's cover of "The Star-Spangled Banner." [4] The cover art for Brute consists of a photograph of one of the teletubbies altered by Babak Radboy to give it face hair, broken blood vessels, and chapped lips. [4] Qadiri explained, "He Frankensteined it. He gave it life. He took something that was an object, and made it into a living, breathing monster." [4] Writer Patrick Hinton put the cover art in his gallery for Mixmag of "The best record artwork of 2016." [16]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
AnyDecentMusic? 6.9/10 [17]
Metacritic 73/100 [18]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [1]
Clash 8/10 [19]
Consequence of Sound B [14]
The Guardian Star full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [20]
Mixmag 9/10 [13]
Mojo Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [18]
Now Noto Color- N.svgNoto Color- N.svgNoto Color- N.svgBlue square N.PNGBlue square N.PNG [10]
Pitchfork 7.3/10 [21]
Q Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [18]
Resident Advisor 2.5/5 [22]

Brute garnered a significant amount of media coverage that focused on as well as honored its political theme, [5] [7] [2] [4] [8] [23] [24] Thump calling it "the Powerful Political Album We've Been Waiting For." [4] Writing for Hyperallergic , Cynthia Cruz stated, "Like great poetry, her music provides just the right amount of world and politics with her references to protests, news clips and police force while allowing the listener enough space within each song and within the album to make her own connections." [7] Shadowproof ran a list by Kevin Gosztola titled the "Top Ten Protest Albums Of 2016," where Brute was included. [25] Gosztola summarized that it was "the kind of album that will carry even more resonance in the era of President Donald Trump," [25] while in a review of the record for Clash magazine, Sofia Leadbetter stated, "Al Qadiri has invoked her own personal brand of protest in a world in which discussion over that right has become ever more charged." [19] In a nine-out-of-ten review for Mixmag, Worthy favorably compared the record to the works of Laurie Anderson as a "doyenne of experimental electronica." [13]

In a review for Consequence of Sound, Staples discussed the LP's ideas in relation to the Republican debates that were going on shortly before the 2016 United States presidential election; he praised the LP for mostly being an instrumental record, reasoning that her choice of not having any vocalist sing words show that "Al Qadiri has an acute awareness of human communication and the subtle impact of its many non-spoken factors." [14] Gibb's review of Brute discussed how Qadiri used tropes from popular music styles in all of her works, opining that "the overt narrative framings of Brute [and her previous LP Asiatisch (2014)] highlight the way Al Qadiri's work seeks to create collages of themes — a bricolage approach that’s effective in bringing together ideas and allowing them to interact, even if the musical results aren't always as successful." [11] He wrote that "the moments when Brute really comes to life are those when it leaves overt references behind and heads towards starker and more emotionally ambiguous places." [11]

A common criticism in more mixed reviews of Brute were towards it not being different enough from previous releases by Qadiri [22] [21] [26] as well as most of the tracks being too formless. [21] [27] In a review for Pitchfork , Kevin Lozano called it a "frustrating mish-mosh of middling and artful." [21] He highlighted its unique concept and felt the tracks that used samples were the best on the record; however, he also opined that most of the other songs were "shapeless tracks" that had too many elements borrowed from Qadiri's past releases. [21] Resident Advisor 's Andrew Ryce wrote that most of the LP's samples were its only parts that distinguished it from previous releases: "Otherwise, we're given titles like "10-34" and "Oubliette," words that gesture towards a theme without providing substance." [22] A reviewer for musicOMH called it a "frustrating album" and a "missed opportunity," writing that it "has the ability to unnerve and unsettle to the point of creating a paranoid world for the listener" but too much of the songs are "formless pieces that drift instead of acting as a counterpoint to the oppression that lets Brute down." [27]

Ben Beaumont-Thomas of The Guardian praised the political theme as "bracing" but opined that the album wasn't "enjoyable to listen to" due to its "limp compositions" and use of sounds like Fairlight CMI-esque voices and "ultra-synthetic" drums that became a cliche in underground electronic music due to the popularity of works by acts such as Oneohtrix Point Never and Visionist. [20] Daniel Bromfield of Spectrum Culture described the album, despite its concept, as "actually pretty, almost pastoral" and joked that it "could just as easily be a concept album about spending a weekend on grandma’s farm." [28] In fact, he went as so far as to say the album was much more enjoyable to listen to without knowing its context: "Taken purely on musical terms, Brute is an excellent album. As a concept album, it’s a flop." [28]

Track listing

Derived from the liner notes of Brute. [29]

No.TitleLength
1."Endzone"1:51
2."Blood Moon"3:32
3."Breach"2:45
4."Curfew"2:44
5."Battery"2:58
6."10-34"2:40
7."Oubliette"3:33
8."Blows"3:20
9."Aftermath"3:56
10."Fragmentation"4:10
11."Power"4:50
Total length:36:19

Personnel

Derived from the liner notes of Brute. [29]

Production
Cover art

Release history

RegionDateFormat(s)Label
Worldwide [6] 4 March 2016 Ghostly International

Related Research Articles

Brute or The Brute may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hyperdub</span> British electronic music record label

Hyperdub is a British, London-based electronic music record label and former webzine, founded by Steve Goodman, a.k.a. Kode9. The label was formed in 2004, and grew out of the UK's early dubstep scene. Artists signed to the label have included Burial, Cooly G, Dean Blunt, DJ Rashad, DVA, Fatima Al Qadiri, Ikonika, Jessy Lanza, Klein, Laurel Halo and Zomby.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kevin Martin (British musician)</span> British music producer

Kevin Richard Martin, often known under his recording alias The Bug, is an English musician and music producer. Martin moved from Weymouth to London around 1990 and is now currently based in mainland Europe. He has been active for over two decades in the genres of dub, jazzcore, industrial hip hop, dancehall, and dubstep.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Burial (musician)</span> British electronic musician

William Emmanuel Bevan, known by his recording alias Burial, is a British electronic musician from South London. Initially remaining anonymous, Burial became the first artist signed to Kode9's electronic label Hyperdub in 2005. He won acclaim the following year for his self-titled debut album, an influential release in the UK's dubstep scene which showcased a dark, emotive take on UK rave music styles such as UK garage and 2-step; it was named the album of the year by The Wire. Burial's second album, Untrue, was released to further critical acclaim in 2007.

<i>Burial</i> (Burial album) 2006 studio album by Burial

Burial is the debut studio album by London electronic producer Burial, released in 2006 on Kode9's Hyperdub label. Considered a landmark of the mid-2000s dubstep scene, the album's sound features a dark, emotive take on the UK rave music that preoccupied Burial in his youth, including UK garage and 2-step. Critics have variously interpreted the release as an elegy for the dissipated rave movement and a sullen audio portrait of London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kode9</span> Musical artist

Steve Goodman, known as Kode9 is a Scottish electronic music artist, DJ, and founder of the Hyperdub record label. He was one of the founding members of the early dubstep scene with his late collaborator The Spaceape. He has released four full-length albums: 2006's Memories of the Future and 2011's Black Sun, Nothing (2015), Escapology and Astro-Darien (2022).

Factory Girl is a traditional song. It has been performed by The Roches, The Chieftains with Sinéad O'Connor, Lisa O'Neill with Radie Peat, Margaret Barry, Rhiannon Giddens, and Eric Burdon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laurel Halo</span> American electronic musician

Laurel Anne Chartow, known professionally as Laurel Halo, is an American electronic musician currently based in Los Angeles, California. She released her debut album Quarantine on Hyperdub in 2012 to critical acclaim; it was named album of the year by The Wire. She followed with studio albums Chance of Rain (2013) and Dust (2017), mini-album Raw Silk Uncut Wood (2018) and the original soundtrack release of Possessed (2020).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DJ Rashad</span> Musical artist

Rashad Harden, known as DJ Rashad, was a Chicago-based electronic musician, producer and DJ known as a pioneer in the footwork genre and founder of the Teklife crew. He released his debut studio album Double Cup on Hyperdub in 2013 to critical praise. He died in April 2014 from a drug overdose.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scratcha DVA</span> British electronic musician, producer and DJ

Scratcha DVA also known as DJ Scratcha, DVA [Hi; Emotions], Scratchclart and DVA is a British electronic musician, producer and DJ often associated with DVA Music, Hyperdub and Rinse FM. His debut album, Pretty Ugly (2012) and second album, Notu Uronlineu (2016) were both released on Hyperdub.

Fatima Al Qadiri is a Senegalese-born Kuwaiti musician and conceptual artist.

Ultra is the fourth studio album by British electronic musician Zomby. It was released via Hyperdub on 2 September 2016. It features contributions from Banshee, Burial, Darkstar, and Rezzett.

<i>Dust</i> (Laurel Halo album) 2017 studio album by Laurel Halo

Dust is the third album by Berlin-based American electronic music artist Laurel Halo. It was released on June 23, 2017 by Hyperdub. The album features contributions from Eli Keszler, Julia Holter, Michael Salu, and Max D among others, and was preceded by the single "Jelly", featuring Klein and Lafawndah.

<i>Desert Strike</i> (EP) 2012 EP by Fatima Al Qadiri

Desert Strike is the third extended play of Kuwait musician Fatima Al Qadiri. The record is based on Desert Strike: Return to the Gulf (1992), a video game that in turn is based on events of Operation Desert Storm of the Gulf War. As a kid who lived in Kuwait during the Gulf War, Qadiri played the game a year after it took place, which messed with how she remembered experiencing the actual war. Given how dark the game portrayed the Gulf War, she intended the extended play to represent a positive and "innocent" view of it by pairing a palette of childlike sounds with war sound effects. Released on 23 October 2012 by the label Fade To Mind, Desert Strike garnered generally favorable reviews from professional music journalists and landed on Spin magazine's list of the "Best Dance Albums of 2012."

<i>Warn-U</i> 2011 EP by Ayshay

Warn-U is the debut extended play of Kuwait musician Fatima Al Qadiri, released in September 2011 by the label Tri Angle. It was a part of her project Ayshay, which intended to reinterpret Islamic worship music. The EP only consists of Qadiri's falsetto vocals that are processed and altered to create other types of electronic sounds. The EP consists of three original tracks and a "megamix" of all of them by production duo Nguzunguzu.

<i>Genre-Specific Xperience</i> 2011 album by Fatima Al Qadiri

Genre-Specific Xperience is a project by Kuwait musician Fatima Al Qadiri that serves as her second extended play in her discography. Its intention is to reinterpret five musical genres through audio and visuals: juke, hip hop, dubstep, electronic tropicalia, and what the press release labeled as "‘90s Gregorian trance." The main idea of the project regards what would happen if the "limitations" of a genre were bypassed or altered. The visuals for the tracks were produced by Tabor Robak, Sophia Al-Maria, Ryan Trecartin, Rhett LaRue, Kamau Patton, and production company Thunder Horse. The music videos premiered at New Museum on 21 October 2011, and the extended play itself was released by UNO Records on 25 October to favorable reviews from professional music journalists. A remix record titled GSX Remixes was released in May 2012 and features re-edits of tracks from Genre-Specific Xperience by acts such as Ikonika and DJ Rashad.

<i>Asiatisch</i> 2014 studio album by Fatima Al Qadiri

Asiatisch is the debut full-length studio album of Kuwaiti musician Fatima Al Qadiri, released by the label Hyperdub on 5 May 2014. The record is about what Qadiri called "Imagined China," an environment of stereotypes about East Asian nations and respective cultures formed in media of the Western world. Thus, it musically derives from sinogrime, a style of grime music that utilizes elements of East Asian music. In representing Asian stereotypes, the album includes digital traditional Chinese and Japanese-styled drum kits and synth presets alongside "scrambled" ancient Chinese poems. One of the main inspirations for Qadiri producing Asiatisch was the making of a "nonsense Mandarin" a cappella version of the song "Nothing Compares 2 U" that would later be the record's opening track.

Klein is a singer-songwriter and producer from South London, England. She released the EP Tommy on UK label Hyperdub in 2017 and has received praise for her albums Lifetime (2019) and Frozen (2020) on her record label ijn inc.

<i>Shaneera</i> 2017 EP by Fatima Al Qadiri

Shaneera is an extended play by Kuwait musician Fatima Al Qadiri, released on 13 October 2017 via the label Hyperdub. Marking Qadiri's move towards more dance-orientated material, Shaneera is conceptually about an "evil queen" that defies "binary status quo gender roles," a character that Qadiri appears as on the EP's cover art. Many critics found Shaneera much better than Qadiri's previous records for its playful use of its concept.

<i>Future Brown</i> (album) 2015 studio album by Future Brown

Future Brown is the self-titled debut studio album by American electronic music supergroup Future Brown, consisting of Fatima Al Qadiri, J-Cush, and members of the duo Nguzunguzu. Future Brown is an electronica album fusing together genres from a variety of different cultures and backgrounds. It features several rappers and musicians also associated with from a diverse set of music scenes such as Kelela, Tink, Riko Dan, Maluca, Shawnna, 3D Na'Tee, Tim Vocals, and Ruff Sqwad members Dirty Danger, Prince Rapid, and Roachee.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Kellman, Andy. "Brute – Fatima Al Qadiri". AllMusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 13 August 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Hulyer, Jake (12 May 2016). "Outspoken Electronica: An interview with Fatima Al Qadiri". Huck . TCOLondon. Retrieved 14 August 2017.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Woon, Madeleine (9 June 2016). "Fatima Al Qadiri On Beyoncé, Police Brutality & Her Most Political Album Yet". Oyster . Retrieved 14 August 2017.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 Lhooq, Michelle (12 February 2016). "Fatima Al Qadiri’s ‘Brute’ is the Powerful Political Album We've Been Waiting For". Thump . Vice Media. Retrieved 13 August 2017.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Brown, Deforrest (23 February 2016). "Atmospheres of rage and control: Fatima Al Qadiri on 'Brute'". Mixmag . Development Hell Ltd. Retrieved 13 August 2017.
  6. 1 2 3 "Fatima Al Qadiri announces second album Brute – hear ‘Battery’". Fact . The Vinyl Factory. 20 January 2016. Retrieved 15 August 2017.
  7. 1 2 3 Cruz, Cynthia (4 June 2016). "Fatima al Qadiri’s Poetry of Terror and Protest". Hyperallergic . Retrieved 14 August 2017.
  8. 1 2 Robin Jones, Charlie (11 July 2016). “A Planetary Crisis of Policing”. 032c . Retrieved 14 August 2017.
  9. Irwin, Kevin (3 March 2016). "Brute force – Fatima Al Qadiri’s ambient soundtrack to an age of civil unrest". The Line of Best Fit. Retrieved 15 August 2017.
  10. 1 2 Ritchie, Kevin (2 March 2016). "Fatima Al Qadiri". Now . Now Communications. Retrieved 13 August 2017.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 Gibb, Rory (3 March 2016). "The Lead Review: Rory Gibb On Fatima Al Qadiri's Brute". The Quietus . Retrieved 14 August 2017.
  12. 1 2 3 4 Burnett, Joseph (24 February 2016). "Fatima Al Qadiri — Brute (Hyperdub)". Dusted. Retrieved 15 August 2017.
  13. 1 2 3 4 Worthy, Stephen (1 March 2016). "Fatima Al Qadiri". Mixmag. Development Hell Ltd. Retrieved 13 August 2017.
  14. 1 2 3 Staples, Derek (10 March 2016). "Fatima Al Qadiri – Brute". Consequence of Sound . Retrieved 13 August 2017.
  15. 1 2 3 "Josh Kline: Freedom". Modern Art Oxford Official Website. Retrieved 13 August 2017.
  16. Hinton, Patrick (27 December 2016). "The best record artwork of 2016". Mixmag. Development Hell Ltd. Retrieved 14 August 2017.
  17. "Brute by Fatima Al Qadiri". AnyDecentMusic?. Retrieved 13 August 2017.
  18. 1 2 3 "Critic Reviews for Brute". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 13 August 2017.
  19. 1 2 Leadbetter, Sofia (7 March 2016). "Fatima Al Qadiri – Brute". Clash . Music Republic. Retrieved 13 August 2017.
  20. 1 2 Beaumont-Thomas, Ben (3 March 2016). "Fatima Al Qadiri: Brute review – bracing conscience but limp compositions". The Guardian . Guardian Media Group. Retrieved 13 August 2017.
  21. 1 2 3 4 5 Lozano, Kevin (10 March 2016). "Fatima Al Qadiri: Brute". Pitchfork . Conde Nast. Retrieved 13 August 2017.
  22. 1 2 3 Ryce, Andrew (7 March 2016). "Fatima Al Qadiri – Brute". Resident Advisor . Retrieved 13 August 2017.
  23. Crum-Tesfa, Zoma. "Fatima Al Qadiri: Sounds of the Apocalypse". Ssense. Retrieved 14 August 2017.
  24. Olbrich, Suze (28 July 2016). "Fatima Al-Qadiri Talks Politics, Protest and Provocation". Another Magazine . Dazed Media. Retrieved 14 August 2017.
  25. 1 2 Gosztola, Kevin (28 December 2016). "Top Ten Protest Albums Of 2016". Shadowproof . Retrieved 14 August 2017.
  26. Robertson, Emma. "Fatima Al Qadiri – Brute". Crack. Retrieved 15 August 2017.
  27. 1 2 Jex, Andy (4 March 2016). "Fatima Al Qadiri – Brute". musicOMH . Retrieved 15 August 2017.
  28. 1 2 Bromfield, Daniel (14 March 2016). "Fatima Al Qadiri: Brute". Spectrum Culture. Retrieved 15 August 2017.
  29. 1 2 Brute (2016). Fatima Al Qadiri. Hyperdub. HBDLP031.

Further reading