The Other Shore

The icing on the cake. As Aly & Fila expand their record label with ‘Future Sound of Egypt Excelsior’, finish up yet another FSOE world tour, and drop smash record after smash record, it’s hard to imagine what in the world could be left for the pair. Just shy of 1 million Facebook followers as of this writing, Aly & Fila are about as elite as it gets. A chance to break free. Their third studio album, ‘The Other Shore’ is the magnum opus of artists who have already reached the other side of their craft. No longer out to prove anything, Aly & Fila are free to create exactly the kind of album that they want. The most striking feature of this record is the sheer musicality of every track. Borrowing instrumentation from different cultures, genres, and even eras, they’ve blended it all in a style that no one on earth could emulate. Powerful diversity. From Aruna’s jazzy and minimal title track to ‘In My Mind’ (featuring Karim Youssef & May Hassan), the scope of this record is unimaginable. Songs like ‘Altitude Compensation’ will pull at your heart like a long-lost lover, while ‘Never Let Me Go’ (featuring Seri) is an intimate, remarkable tune made possible by inspired and magical vocals. Downtempo ‘Shine’ (with Roxanne Emery) is perfect for the azure Mediterranean shores of Ibiza. “Perfection is achieved when there’s nothing left to take away.” Very few producers would have the confidence to strip their tracks down to the bare essentials, leaving nothing left to hide. To pull this off, what’s left has to be almost inhumanly perfect – breath for breath, note for note. You couldn’t take away a single sound or a song from this record and have it be the same, and as impossible as it may seem, it’s hard to imagine Aly & Fila going anywhere but up from here.