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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
A belated follow-up to his 1998 classic Diwan, Rachid Taha's latest again pairs the French-Algerian with producer Steve Hillage, once guitarist with proto-trance pranksters Gong, on a selection of songs old and new designed to offer a survey of North African styles and concerns. Musically, this accommodates everything from the cascades of kora glissandi on "Agatha" to the blend of ney flute and oud on "Rani", with the breathiness of Kadi Bouguenaya's Gasbar Oranais lending a wonderful grainy texture to the hypnotic desert-blues of "Josephine" and "Ah Mon Amour". Contrary to the edgy attitudes of some rai music, there's an underlying good humour and liberality to several songs: in "Agatha", a cuckolded husband makes light of his wife's light-skinned baby ("Oh pals, it's better to take it for a joke/ No need to cry for so little matter"), while there's more humour in Taha's corpsing chuckle in "Ecoute Moi Camarade", whose reggae-beat groove, Arabic strings and muted jazz trumpet is the CD's most intriguing crossover.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
A wild man beloved by Joe Strummer, the Rock the Casbah showman reveals his gentler side in a collection that harks back to a kinder, gentler era. His long-time collaborator Steve Hillage has done a remarkably sympathetic job of the production: the best of the percussion-led songs sound as if they have just burst out of the speakers of an Algiers taxi. French and Arabic lyrics swoop across keening string arrangements. The undisputed highlight, Agatha, offers a sardonic running commentary on sexual politics, as a suspicious husband comes to terms with a new-born child's dubious ancestry.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Two years on from his celebrated reworking of the Clash anthem, Rock el Casbah, Rachid Taha has gone back to his roots. It's been eight years since the wild man of French-Algerian music released his first Diwan album, explaining: "This is my version of John Lennon's Rock'n'Roll album - like him, I want to sing the songs that influence me and pay homage to my culture." This time there are songs from Blaoui Houari, a major star in Algeria in the 1950s, and Mohamed Mazouni, whose Ecoute Moi Camarade was discovered by Rachid in his parents' attic. They are updated with classy, rhythmic production work from Steve Hillage, making use of anything from hand drums to sweeping strings.
Taha proves that he can handle slinky, declamatory songs and ballads, but the best tracks are the two written by him and Hillage, with the reed flute and percussion driving on his urgent vocals.
Taha proves that he can handle slinky, declamatory songs and ballads, but the best tracks are the two written by him and Hillage, with the reed flute and percussion driving on his urgent vocals.
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