Biography
E Saggila is the moniker of Iraq-born, Toronto-based DJ and producer Rita Mikhael. Sitting at the crossroads of techno, noise, gabber and breakcore, Rita Mikhael's music is fearless, confrontational and utterly thrilling. Before she decided to focus on music full-time, Rita Mikhael studied medical aesthetics at a school in Toronto, where she learned about "very invasive" procedures like chemical peels and facial reconstruction. Like those procedures, the music she's made since then is not for the faint of heart. As E-Saggila, Mikhael builds on her background in harsh noise and analog improvisations to create claustrophobic and densely layered techno. During her Boiler Room debut earlier this summer, host and fellow Toronto producer Sylvermayne aptly introduced her as "true darkness, fire and brimstone." She then proceeded to play a blistering set of gabber, breakcore and power violence. The vocalist Brant Boshart, in fingerless gloves and a shirt that read "HARDCORE LIVES: E-SAGGILA," joined her to growl over her pummeling beats. By then, only a handful of strong-stomached dancers remained on the floor.From her early, self-released tapes under the alias RM, to records on leftfield labels like Aught Void, BANK Records NYC and Opal Tapes, the 26-year-old Iraq-born producer has accomplished a lot in a short period of time. All the while, she's been utterly unafraid to challenge audiences. She started the experimental electronic and industrial-focussed cassette label Summer Isle in 2014 with her partner Max Klebanoff, who plays drums in the Toronto death metal group Tomb Mold and solo as Death Kneel. Since then, they've put out 60 releases by artists from Canada and abroad. Known for their outré sounds and stark, monochromatic cover art, the limited-edition cassettes, which frequently sold out, introduced listeners to E-Saggila's sonically brutal compositions. Mikhael and Klebanoff occasionally threw shows with avant-garde-leaning acts that Toronto's more established bookers and venues wouldn't touch.
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