Until very recently, faizal was making music under a different name – Katoptris. This is not something particularly new; artists have been re-branding themselves for quite a long time now in an attempt to portray themselves fundamentally different to what they perceive is an ‘era’ they want to leave behind. But usually, this represents some sort of seismic shift in the artist’s chosen musical palate or genre. With ‘Habibti’, this isn’t completely the case, but it’s interesting nonetheless.

faizal has always had something of a style; mostly sung R&B vocals in today's half-rapped fashion over production that would fit in any hip-hop release in the pre-drill era (seriously, people do need to stop putting drill and Jersey club in every single new song at this point, because that sound is closer to being obsolete than ever in the wider pop space). This song employs precisely the same thing, but perhaps with a more personal touch. His last releases played with lo-fi and 8-bit elements as ancillary characters, but those are nowhere to be found here. But it's a real earworm with solid production, and that's where ‘Habibti’ gets its replay value from. It's always worth a listen.

But more importantly, does this music represent the closing of an old chapter and the opening of a new one that faizal says it is? Well, if you subscribe to the idea of something or someone being ‘the same, but different’, then, absolutely. This change of name is not to be taken lightly; many an artist throughout history has completely changed their sound without changing the perception of their artistic identity. faizal seems to have done it the other way round, and that idea is what makes the otherwise familiar sound of ‘Habibti’ interesting. It's not new for the artist but still kind of new, and those two elements pushing against each other make this an interesting thought experiment. Oh, and a fun little listen along the way.