The beats housed on Istanbul-based producer El Mahdy Jr.‘s debut effort, The Spirit of Fucked Up Places, is described as a “melting of his native Algerian music, Turkish folk, the furious polyrhythms of West Africa, and his love of slow, low-slung rap beats.” It’s hard to think of a tune that better fits that description than “Coins & Diamonds.” The eerie production wraps long-sustaining chords around a congregation of micro-samples which blend the strums of a grainy guitar with the refracted murmur of a city center. But beneath these interwoven textures are sharp, churning rhythms, making “Coins & Diamonds” a deceivingly propulsive effort and a production that proves especially immersive inside a pair of headphones. The Spirit of Fucked Up Places is out today on vinyl and digital formats.

Coins & Diamonds