Nabihah Iqbal (Ninja Tune) Announces Debut New Zealand Shows

London producer, DJ, curator and broadcaster Nabihah Iqbal's first new album in five years Dreamer made significant waves when it launched earlier this year via Ninja Tune. Interweaving elements of synth-soaked post-punk, spoken word poetics and club-friendly electronica, Iqbal created the ten track long player following a studio burglary, and subsequent extended stay with grandparents in Pakistan during the lockdown months (where she also started "a webseries documenting local plants"). Contributor to Sophie releases including 2015's classic 'Lemonade' when operating under her earlier moniker Throwing Shade, Iqbal has today announced must-attend debut Aotearoa headline dates at Pōneke's Meow and Tāmaki Makaurau's Neck of the Woods in mid-January — raising the bar formidably high for basically the entirety of 2024. Read Tony Stamp's illuminating profile of Iqbal for RNZ's The Sampler HERE and move fast when tickets go live later this week, brought to you by Banished Music and Strange News Touring...

Nabihah Iqbal

Tuesday 16th January - Meow, Wellington w/ Japes
Wednesday 17th January - Neck of the Woods, Auckland w/ cc(tv)

Tickets from www.banishedmusic.com

Hit play on 'This World Couldn’t See Us' from Nabihah Iqbal's new album DREAMER...

Experience the title track for DREAMER...

Press release:

London-based musician, producer, DJ and broadcaster Nabihah Iqbal has just announced two very special Aotearoa live dates, happening in Pōneke and Tāmaki Makaurau this January.

Touring to celebrate her remarkable Ninja Tune album DREAMER, Iqbal is bringing her inimitable blend of shoegaze, dance music, and ice-cool dream pop to our shores at last.

A proper brilliant polymath whose life has seen her shapeshift effortlessly from legal professional to respected DJ, arts and festival curator to songwriter, to regular NTS Radio host, as comfortable performing in cultural epicentres such as the Tate Modern or the Barbican as she is in underground dance clubs.

Nabihah’s own music began to take shape in 2013 with her R&B influenced pop and ambient techno project Throwing Shade, and an early collaboration with the late electronic innovator SOPHIE on the Lemonade single. In 2017, she switched to using her birth name, and signed to legendary UK label Ninja Tune for the album Weighing of the Heart.

After life took a series of unexpected turns, from spending lockdown in Pakistan while visiting family to having her studio robbed and being forced to start from scratch, 2023 album DREAMER was born, featuring what the label describes as “snapshots and memories of Nabihah’s life, exploring personal identity and grief”. From indie anthem This World Couldn’t See Us, to club-ready choon Sky River, to the dreamy guitar contemplation Lilac Twilight, this stunning sophomore record sees Nabihah spanning genres in a most refreshing way.