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Los Angeles artist Arshia Fatima Haq was thumbing through racks of dusty vinyl at New Yorkâs A-1 Records a few years ago when a title caught her eye:
Disco Se Aagay, or âBeyond Discoâ in Haqâs native Urdu. Peering out from the sleeve was a teenage girl with bouffant â80s hair, a white dinner jacket, and a Mona Lisa smile. The album was billed as âa step further in the field of disco musicâ; the musicians were identified in the credits as a brother and sister, Nermin Niazi and Feisal Mosleh, from Birmingham, England. Nermin, the singer and lyricist, was âstill a school-girl,â according to the sleeve notes. Feisal, a college student, had composed and produced the music, writing some of the songs at just 17. The copyright was dated 1984; there were synthesizers. Naturally, Haq took the record home.