In the ‘90s, Pakistan’s music and nightlife scene was flourishing. Then came terrorism, and an end to all that. But now, spurred on by a desire to bring Pakistan back to the world, artists like house duo Fake Shamans are turning the volume up again.  

Nice evening in the Punjab, Pakistan. The sun’s going down behind the spires of Badshahi Mosque, settling into a hazy purple twilight, and on the roof of an ice cream parlor in downtown Lahore, two guys are installing a turntable and complicated mixing gear. Down on the streets, the city’s red-light district, Heera Mandi, is starting to flicker.

Back in the 1500s, this was the home of the tawaif courtesans, high priestesses of music and entertainment, basically the geishas of the Mughal empire. It’s a good backdrop for a new kind of spectacle: The open-air Pakistani house rave.

The two guys fiddling with cables are electronica DJs, Omair Anjum and Mohammed ‘Mosh’ Shah, better known by their stage name, Fake Shamans.