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Rachid Taha
Tekitoi (Wrasse)

Taha is often seen as the 'punk spirit' of Alergerian roots-pop music, and this 2004 release is thought provokinging and fascinating. It includes his version of ‘Rock El Casbah’, an homage to the late great Joe Strummer, whose spirit Taha often credits as being the real roots of rai.

Tracks: 1. Tekitoi - Who Are You 2. Rock El Casbah - Rock El Casbah 3. Ill Fat Mat! - What Is Past Is Dead And Gone 4. H'asbu-Hum - Ask Them For An Explanation 5. Safi - Pure 6. Meftuh - Open 7. Nah'seb - I Count 8. Dima - Always 9. Mamachi - Mamachi 10. Shuf - Look 11. Stenna - Wait 12. Ya Raha 13. Voila Voila - Here It Is, Here It Is plus bonus DVD

Press from the record label:
“Who are you?” “Who am I?” It sounds like there’s an existential storm broiling deep inside the soul of France’s number 1 musical upsetter. ‘Tékitoi?’, the title of the latest in a long line of probing, provocative and highly original Rachid Taha releases, is a punchy piece of French street lingo whose tone actually says something more like “Who the hell are you?”. “I dreamed of singing my nightmares,” says Taha. The apocalyptic vision of a society careering into a wall was the impetus for a marathon of questioning; his motives, other people’s motives, the dirty victory of experience over innocence, the root causes of the virulent anger and chaos that grips our world. That’s what makes ‘Tékitoi’ Taha’s most harrowing and yet fascinating album to date. And in the midst of it all there’s ‘Rock El Casbah’, an homage to the late great Joe Strummer, a man’s whose unvarnished honesty and lack of text-book punk cynicism made him a hero, to Taha and to many others.

Biography
Never mind the war on terrorism, what about the war on fear, complacency, ignorance, racism, poverty and lies. That's a struggle that Rachid Taha has been fighting for the past two decades and more, ever since he was a tear-away punk immigrant from Algeria gobbing metaphorically and no doubt literally at the good burghers of Lyon in France. His band, Carte de Sejour (the French for 'residence permit'), proved that rock power, punk attitude and Arabic roots could get along famously if mentored by a passionate, razor-sharp and mouthy soul like Taha. Being proudly North African on the one hand and truly rebellious on the other has always meant struggle on many fronts and Rachid Taha has spent his whole career lobbing musical molotovs at the latent and, as recent event have proved, not so latent racism of the French in the form of classic songs like 'Voile Voile’ and 'Douce France' whilst berating his fellow North Africans for lack of ambition, obsession with tradition, cabaret complacency and enslavement to rai. 'There isn't only rai,' Taha said recently.

'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 'OlČ OlČ', 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. (Courtesy of WOMAD)