Audio Émigré: Tse Tse Fly Middle East Debuts in London
By Ned Carter Miles
Performance by DUSHUME. Courtesy Tse Tse Fly Middle East.
Tse Tse Fly Middle East—named after the deadly insect native to tropical Africa—was founded in Dubai in 2015 by British artist Simon Coates. Having noticed a certain homogeneity in the city’s nightlife, which was limited to clubs playing commercial pop and dance music, Coates saw potential for something new, and organised a new experimental sound art event with fellow artist Ram Nath—according to Coates, it was the first of its kind in the Arab Gulf countries. One of Dubai’s less fashionable clubs was deliberately chosen for the first night, which welcomed around 200 people looking to see and hear something more chaotic and unconventional than what had been available, and in the two following years Tse Tse Fly became a monthly occurrence with its own associated radio program, featuring the sound art scenes of many Middle Eastern, African and South Asian countries.
