Rachid Taha - Diwan (1998)@flac

The sophomore release from Algerian singer Rachid Taha.
This is a stunning album, as he moves through straightforward rai to blues, rock, and the full spectrum of worldbeat. The album starts out with a song about exile from home, followed by a musical history of rai, covering all of the basic steps in the development of Taha's chosen base-style. An Egyptian film song from the great Farid El Atrache continues the barrage of bouncing Middle Eastern and North African sounds.
A more modern version of the ay-ay genre ensues, with fuzzed guitars looped throughout. Some urban Algerian blues and a bit of chaabi follow, on the topics of love and love lost. The album finishes with a stretch of slightly more serious songs, with a number based on the Algerian war for independence and the torture endured by its prisoners, a political song from a Moroccan group, a basic rai number in French pidgin, and a song from the frustrated youth of Algeria.
This is something of a North African tour-de-force, as Taha moves from one style to another, always partially based in the rai tradition, but always expanding to other styles in the process. The songs can be backed by a simple flute, or by a group of rock guitars. Either way, the works are held together by the overriding compositions that Taha is dealing from.
It's a great album for those that are already knowledgeable in rai for its new directions, and a nice album for newcomers as it displays the full breadth in a single disc. (AMG)





01. Ya Rayah
02. Ida
03. Habina
04. Bent Sahra
05. Ach Adani
06. El H'Mame
07. Enti Rahti
08. Menfi
09. Bani Al Insane
10. Malheureux Toujours
11. Aiya Aiya



Amina Alaoui: Vocals
Nabil Khalidi: Banjo, Percussion, Vocals (bckgr), Oud
Bob Loveday: Strings
Geoffrey Richardson: Strings
Aziz Ben Salam: Flute
Steve Hillage: Guitar, Programming, Producer, Engineer, Mixing



Label: Barclay / Polygram
Released: 1998
Catalogue: 539 953-2


Codec: Flac
Compression Level: 5
Quality: High


CD-rip by alekow (EAC and Flac)
Covers Included (400dpi)







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