Sep 23, 2008

Around The World (47)

Hello, Around the Worldmusic crosses over from the desert with a crossover artist Rachid Taha, he's been on the music scene for more then 25 years now so this collection is just a small part of his oevre..a teaser....btw the Sunshine posts are all live again.
***** ***** ***** ***** *****

Rachid Taha - The Collection( ^ 180mb)

Rachid taha was born in Oran, western Algeria, and spent the first ten years in the town of Sig. The war and corruption had his father decide to move the family to France in 1968. After a village adolescence Rachid moved to Lyon, where he met likeminded and formed "Carte De Séjour". In 1981, while living in Lyon, France, Taha met Mohammed and Mokhtar Amini. The three of them, Rachid, Djamel Dif and Eric Vaquer would later form the band "Carte De séjour" (Green Card) and record their first album Rhorhomanie in 1984. Their second and last LP entitled Ramsa (Five) was released in 1986 and included their famous and ironic cover of Douce France, originally sung by Charles Trenet. The band dissolved in 1989.

A trip to Los Angeles has him record a demo with Don Was but it didnt get hime a recording contract. Undeterred by this setback, Rachid decided to take a break from the music scene and go back to his Algerian roots in Oran. He had not given up the idea of launching a solo career, however, and continued to work on a new demo tape - which would finally result in his debut solo album. Named after a famous immigrant area in Paris, the album "Barbès" was released in 1991. But, unfortunately for Rachid, the Gulf War broke out shortly after the release of "Barbès" and French radio stations judged his Arabic songs too 'sensitive' to play during the war with Saddam Hussein.

In spite of this second setback Rachid Taha persevered with his solo career, returning to the studio in 1993 to record a second album, entitled simply "Rachid Taha". Produced by Steve Hillage, Rachid's new album featured a fusion of African and European music and a series of lyrics which were more sharply ironic than ever. Much to everyone's surprise the dance-oriented single "Voilà Voilà", proved a major hit . Two years later Rachid flew to London to record his third solo album with his old friend Steve Hillage. Released in 1995, the new album "Olé Olé" proved to be even more of a musical cross-over than Rachid's previous album, fusing Western techno beats and electric guitars with Algerian chaâbi, Mexican mariachis and the traditional Arab zither

The following year (98) Taha returned to the studio to record a brand new album entitled "Diwan". This fascinating album, produced by Steve Hillage, was made up entirely of covers, featuring Taha's innovative new versions of Middle Eastern classics. Taha returned to the music news in October 2000 with a critically acclaimed album entitled "Made in Medina". Recorded between studios in Paris, London, Marrakech and New Orleans, Taha's new album featured an infectious mix of rock, electro, voodoo trance and Arab sounds. Taha invited his old friend, guitarist Steve Hillage, to join him in recording "Made in Medina and assembled an eclectic list of guest stars, ranging from the all-women Moroccan group B'net Marrakech to Galactic, a band from Louisiana.

The next years saw himon a world tour Taha, he managed to get back into the studio in 2004 to work on a new album, "Tékitoi?" released in September 2004. Recorded between Paris, London and Cairo, the album featured Taha’s long-term collaborator, UK producer Steve Hillage, at the studio helm. As far as lyrics go, "Tékitoi?" found the Algerian-born rocker tackling highly topical themes such as corruption, war and racism. Taha, the musician who appears to be torn between traditional and modern sounds, took another trip down memory lane on "Diwan 2", a second album featuring covers of classics from his native Maghreb. The album, released in October 2006 and sung in a mixture of French, Arabic and “Francarabe”, conjured up evocative images of smoky cafés in Barbès, Oran and Cairo. It was produced by his old friend and collaborator Steve Hillage again and featured contributions from the Cairo String Ensemble. Last year saw the release of this compilation..




Rachid Taha - The Collection ( ^ 180mb)

01 - Ya Rayah (Party) (6:17)
02 - Rock El Casbah (Rock The Casbah) (4:36)
03 - Nokta (Point) (5:13)
04 - Voila Voila (5:16)
05 - Habina (We Love) (7:28)
06 - Kelma (Thoughts) (4:50)
07 - Bent Sahra (The Girl Of The Sahara) (7:13)
08 - Douce France (Sweet France) (3:40)
09 - Indie (India) (4:21)
10 - Jungle Fiction (4:04)
11 - Ida (If...) (5:58)
12 - Hey Anta (Hey You) (4:32)
13 - Barbes (4:26)
14 - Barra Barra (Outside) (5:48)
15 - Menfi (The Exile) (5:05)


***** ***** ***** ***** *****
All downloads are in * ogg-7 (224k) or ^ ogg-9(320k), artwork is included , if in need get the nifty ogg encoder/decoder here !

No comments: