Some music for day eight of the Accordion Guy Advent Calendar — all the way from Algieria, here’s Rachid Taha’s Rock el Casbah [5.7MB, MP3], his cover of The Clash’s Rock the Casbah. It’s off his album Tekitoi, a term that is derived from the French “T’es qui, toi?” — “You — who are you?”.
Here’s a little blurb about Taha:
‘My music has always been more influenced by chaabi
(old style pop, mainly from Algiers & Ed) which I’ve always loved
because of its poetry and rebelliousness.’ After leaving Carte de
Sejour at the end of the 1980s, Taha teamed up with the British
producer and trance meister Steve Hillage to record a series of classic
albums including ‘OlÈ OlÈ’, the most recent ‘Made in Medina’ and the
classic ‘Diwan’, which features Taha’s monster hit cover of ‘Ya Rayah’,
an old song written by the Algerian Berber legend Dahmane El Harrachi.
With its expert blending of North African roots, rock and house
inspired electronica, ‘Diwan’ is nothing less than a template for the
future development of North African music. Above all Rachid Taha is a
great showman, delivering rude-boy witticisms and hilarious insights
with sweaty passion whilst his band fire off raucous rock riffs and
snakey Arabic melodies. It’s a clear case of never mind the world music
bollocks, here’s Rachid Taha.