The legendary Giula Loli is the artist behind the pseudonymous Mutamassik—the Arabic word for fortress. Her latest album Symbols Follow (Discrepant 2015) develops on her previous work, exploring antique yet somehow futuristic rhythms. By reconnecting divergent traditions and innovations she creates an intense, expansive, and distinctive mentality inspired by genres such as electronic hip hop, hardstep and junglist punk.

As a trans-national musical activist Mutamassik has collaborated with artists such as Marc Ribot, Ikue Mori, Butch Morris, Musicians of the Nile, Julia Kent, and Morgan Craft (Rough Americana). As a musician and producer she has released groundbreaking albums and EPs since the 1990s. Her music can be described as a frontal crash between Afro-Asian sa’aidi hardcore and baladibreakbeat. Her percussions both jolt us awake and leave us dazed like a punch in the face, and she is always ready to show her middle finger to the industry with a migrant’s distinct capacity for invention. Mutamassik lives her life and her music like a strike against poverty and oppression. For over twenty years she has been a producer for G.G.S.S/Rocca AlMileda Studio, which has taken her from Brooklyn to Kairo, on to Toscana with a stop in Amsterdam, where she is currently vibrating.