Algeria music reviews

Or audio Hasheesh - take your pick.

One of the most nearly perfect albums I have heard in over four decades of eclectic listening.

I have little idea what Khaled is singing about, or what language or dialect he is singing it in - nor do I much care.
The voice is all you need. Add to that magnificent instrument
superb musicians, spot-on instrumentation, arrangements and production that fits each song like a glove and...what else is necessary to know?

Eleven splendidly varied songs that all groove, cook and flow into each other with an utterly dependable, danceable, intoxicating drive and sheer delight in being alive. It just keeps coming on. And you wish it will never stop. This is music that would make Sufis of the pathetic Taliban.

(Check out Kenza, too!)

This CD is my first experience with rai music. I am now a devoted fan. The first song truly speaks to my heart. The second song KEBOU is my favorite on the album. I am a student of Middle Eastern dance and enjoy all types of Arabic music. I find the music here to be eclectic, hypnotic, and energetic. I do not speak Arabic and currently enjoy listening to Khaled more than any of my English language CD's. I think the varied instrumentation is invigorating and fresh. Khaled's voice is so engaging and the more I hear it the more I love it. Just can't say enough!

I bought this CD for the "alachi taadi" song from the fifth element. I was surprised to find other songs that are even better. Great Music

Or audio Hasheesh - take your pick.

One of the most nearly perfect albums I have heard in over four decades of eclectic listening.

I have little idea what Khaled is singing about, or what language or dialect he is singing it in - nor do I much care.
The voice is all you need. Add to that magnificent instrument
superb musicians, spot-on instrumentation, arrangements and production that fits each song like a glove and...what else is necessary to know?

Eleven splendidly varied songs that all groove, cook and flow into each other with an utterly dependable, danceable, intoxicating drive and sheer delight in being alive. It just keeps coming on. And you wish it will never stop. This is music that would make Sufis of the pathetic Taliban.

(Check out Kenza, too!)

This CD is my first experience with rai music. I am now a devoted fan. The first song truly speaks to my heart. The second song KEBOU is my favorite on the album. I am a student of Middle Eastern dance and enjoy all types of Arabic music. I find the music here to be eclectic, hypnotic, and energetic. I do not speak Arabic and currently enjoy listening to Khaled more than any of my English language CD's. I think the varied instrumentation is invigorating and fresh. Khaled's voice is so engaging and the more I hear it the more I love it. Just can't say enough!

I bought this CD for the "alachi taadi" song from the fifth element. I was surprised to find other songs that are even better. Great Music

although i bought this cd long time ago, i still feel it's just new every time i listen to it, there is DiDi needs no introduction, and all the other songs i feel that they are like masterpieces...........

I was introduced to Khaled during my trip to India in 1992. This is one of the best albums I have listened to. Track 2 is very addictive as well as the album.

I've been listening to Khaled since his "Cheb" days. While I'm kinda partial to his early stuff, I really dig this particular CD. "Mauvais Sang" and "El Arbi" are just two of its gems. The whole CD is exotic - with western touches and lots of electricity! What a jolt! And Khaled's voice is so soulful and sexy - like no other in rai music. I listen to this CD while I exercise. It makes for an enjoyable workout that goes by quickly! Get this CD while you can!:)

very good cd you get the 3 best rai artists on 1 cd

This is by far one of the best CDs I have ever owned. I really am at a loss for words of how good this really is. Like the other readers, although I understand French I do not know any Arabic, and yet I feel transported every time I listen to any of the songs in this concert. Wahrane Wahrane, Abdel Qader, Aicha are definitely my favorites. I just can't stop listening to any of them. I listen to all the songs anywhere, at work, in the shower, before going out, in the mornings... Not only for listening, but the songs are also great for those who like me love bellydancing.

This concert shows how truly amazing Rai music is, especially when it features 3 of the greatest Rai singers of all time, Faudel, Khaled and Rachid Taha. Although this CD only has 13 songs from that concert out of the original 21 songs that were sung, it features all of the highlight songs from the concert. The 9 that were left out were "Baida", "Omri", "Voila Voila", "Indie", "Sahra", "Madeeh", "Les Ailes", "La Camel", and "Bent Sahra". There is a 2 CD set of this concert available as well so if you want the entire thing I highly recommend buying the 2 CD set. The singers do duets and solos and even all 3 sing together like on "Menfi", "Abdel Kader", "Didi" and "Ya Rayah". The only song on here which is not live is "Comme d'Habitude" which is a studio recording. This CD doesn't do the justice on how big and successful this concert really was by leaving out 9 great songs, but it gets the idea across well. The songs I thought stood out are "Wahrane Wahrane" and "Abdel Kader". Khaled does "Wahrane Wahrane" solo and is the most Middle Eastern sounding song on this album, and "Abdel Kader" features the 3 singing together on a very well produced live version of this song. This concert is also the one where Sting went to looking for a Middle Eastern voice for his song Desert Rose and where he met Cheb Mami.I don't understand one word of French or Arabic but Rai is truly for everyone and this is Rai at its best, so go buy a copy!

all songs are good..you will not have to skip any....
briefly , if you like mami this is his best.
thank you

This particular track just blew me away as I watched the French film "Thieves". There's nothing Arabic about me: I'm English - but I have to say this piece of music is magical, uplifting, exotic and simply fabulous. You'll want to play it over and over: The whole thing is highly recommended.

I gave this album to some of my friends and they all loved it. I think cheb Mami and Khaled are the best rai artists around. unlike other arabic singers and musicians, Mami and Khaled are very creative and everytime a new album of thiers comes out, its always something different. "let me Rai" and Khaled's "Sahra" are perfect introduction to rai for first time listners,i dont know which is better than the other.

I usually don't like CD's made from live shows but this one was true quality. Taha's voice carries very well and all the songs were great but BARRA BARRA totally rocks!!!!

This is one of the best live albums I have ever heard. I usually dislike live albums because of the extraneous noise, but the sheer energy of this performance makes everything else seem pale. Rachid Taha takes essential north African/Arabic rai and folk rhythms and overlays a pounding kicking rock drum/bass/guitar and belts out the songs in Arabic. It is interesting to see the sound morph into techno trance in a live performance. I can never get tired of this album. Go for it!

Postcard from Rachid Taha's recent world tour. The Led Zep reference is not a joke - he gives them a shout out in "Foqt Foqt" and indeed this music is closer to rock than to rai. Aurally, the sound, featuring Taha's declamatory baritone and the Francois Delfin's hard edged lead guitar, reminds me as nothing so much as late 1970s/early 1980s John Cale, but with derbouka (percussion), lute, and keyboard synths providing the Arabic orchestral string parts. Steve Hillage adds a second guitar on six cuts, and on some cuts ("Medina," "Voila Voila") the band, in effect, plays techno live. Quite a disk.

This is a recording that intrigues and impresses and burns slowly until you come back to it and play it again, and over and over again - at least, that's the effect it had on me. It is the wonderful multicultural music, as well as Massi's crystal-clear, melodic, often melancholy voice, that appeals so powerfully. She sings in Arabic, yet you instantly feel a connection, and long to know the specific verbal meanings of the songs. The lyrics are printed inside the album - in French when I bought it a year or two ago, though now I understand the copies on sale on England have them in English. But the French is not that difficult - the words are simple yet profound, clearly influenced by singer-songwriters of a Western folk tradition even though sounding so Arabic. Songs about love, about the state of her own country Algeria, about the world - understated and oblique like much good poetry.
Only one thing recently has been better than listening to Souad Massi's cds, and that was seeing her live - where the music and the whole performance is so vibrant and exciting. On stage, Massi's musical multiculturalism extends to the way she welcomes her musician friends on to the stage and sometimes vacates it for them. These include rock musicians as well as practitioners of the oud and other Middle Eastern instruments. The best introduction to her music remains this first album. This is the one that turned me into a fan - and a dedicated enough one to go and see her backstage after the concert! Look out for a forthcoming interview for www.3ammagazine.com, which she agreed to! And listen to this album. Massi first sang with a highly popular rock band in Algeria. She received death threats after the troubles in that land began in the 1990s. She was invited to appear at a concert in Paris, and has stayed on ever since.
"If I stopped speaking out", she says. "that would mean all the intellectuals they murdered had died in vain."

If people have any knowledge of Algerian music it is usually through the very commercial pop of (Cheb)Khaled. In France Rai music is a popular form of dance music- a bit like Banghra in the UK. Massi's album is very different from the up-tempo pop of Rai. This is Algerian folk music. Most of the songs are quite slow, although one or two really crank it up a notch. The lyrics, some of which are in French and the rest of which are translated into French on the sleeve, are beautiful although usually quite sad- related as they are to the political difficulties in Algeria. The Oud, the distinctive instrument of much of Arab music, is ever-present here. The song 'Bladi' is exceptionally good. If you like this album check on Idir's album 'Identites'.

I discovered this CD while in Paris and can't stop playing it. Get this disc immediately and crank up the volume!

The voice of this woman is warm and tender and yet so full of energy. You will easily be overwhelmed by all these beautiful sounds in arabic and french, even if you do not understand a word (a translation of the lyrics is provided, though). Melodies are catchy and difficult to forget; some times the music becomes too commercial, perhaps. For us westeners, who may be still too far from understanding the real arab folk music, this gives us a taste of the real thing. Just a taste. Souad combines traditional arab sounds with other more western musical patterns, such as Flamenco (which, by the way, has also an arab origin).

Ghir Enta alone is worth your money, but this whole album is utterly fantasitc. Some songs are catchy, some are soothing, but they all share her fantastic voice and instrument playing. I'm not even a huge fan of world music. I'm more of a metal and electronic person, but the first time I heard Souad Massi I was hooked. You will be too.

I heard this reviewed on NPR and immediately knew I wanted it. Even though I don't know what she's singing about most of the time, her passion is universal.

This is great music to do it to.

I picked it up when I was in Spain and by far is one of my favorite ethnic cd. Great beats and music. These guys rock.

To Marrakech. I was wandering the main souk there in Marrakech when I heard this tape playing. I stopped and fumbled through Arabic/French to ask the vendor who it was, and he pulled out the tape case. I bought it on the spot.

Even now, when I listen to it, it takes me all the way to Morocco. My favorites are Omri and Aicha. Both stir emotion and memory for me. If you're not familiar with Rai, this is one of the best CDs to get to do so. In spite of the live recording (which sometimes loses some of the clarity, etc.,), this is awesome! Enjoy!

All songs full of life and passion. This people show what music was made for, neither boundaries nor limits just three artist developing their master piece.
If you like the best music and you dont have problem with the language this disc is for you.

BUY IT !!!!! and see, hear what all here are talking about.

This song is a very good music, the best is who mix sound of Arab with reggae, i feel that if you like the reggae should to listen this song.

This is one wild CD! After establishing their Gnawa credentials with the traditional-sounding first track, the remaining songs grab the listener with a mad, exhilerating rush, firing shot after shot from the cannon as traditional North African sounds are mashed seemlessly into reggae, ska, Jamaican toasting with hints of dub, and even speed metal (?!). In one song, a muzzein call from the sunset minerets of Istanbul turns into a hybrid belly dance cut with greek bouzouki. Wonderful! The musicianship, arrangements, and singing are impeccable, as is the whole concept of this group and this album. To my ear, it sounds like the vocals are in Arabic, French, and English. There is tremendous variety on this CD, and each cut is done exceedingly well (ie. it doesn't at all sound like they are hitting a bunch of styles just to show they can, with the danger of their reach exceeding their grasp). I can't wait to hear the other releases from these guys.

I bought this album in Morocco and it was one of the first Rai albums that I ever listened to... The album is excellent; they combine a lot of different styles, traditional North African, Carribean, western pop. If you want to hear something catchy yet different, have a listen. I recommend this album over Bab El Oued Kingston, although if you like this one definitely get that one as well. Happy listening.