Album review

Rachid Taha

Made in Medina

13/10/2000 - 

Since leaving the Lyon suburbs and splitting up from his group Carte de Séjour, Rachid Taha has turned into a musical nomad, travelling the world and experimenting with everything from rock and electro to traditional Arab chaâbi. After scoring an international hit with his single, Ya Rayah, the 'world' maverick is now back in the music news with a brand new album entitled Made in Medina. Recorded between Paris, London, Marrakesh and New Orleans, Taha's new album features an exuberant mix of electro beats, rock guitars and hypnotic voodoo trance.

We finally managed to catch up with Taha in Paris, pinning the nomadic star down to a rendez-vous in the offices of his record company, Barclay. Taha strode past reception, hiding behind dark glasses, with his tousled black curls looking wilder than ever (his demeanour making it clear he hadn't made it to bed for long the night before!) and answered our questions in a deliciously gravely voice:

Julie Street: Where does the title of your new album, Made in Medina, come from?
Rachid Taha: In Arabic "Medina" means "new town". I wanted to capture the mysteries of this "new town" - the mysteries of its architecture, its atmosphere, its character. For me, the title really sums up the spirit of the album.

So, given that your new album was recorded between Marrakesh, New Orleans and London, "Medina" doesn't refer to any one town in particular. I know you've always had a reputation for being a bit of a musical nomad, but wouldn't it have been easier to record your new album in one place?
I deliberately chose to record the new album in four different cities: Marrakesh, New Orleans, London and… Paris! The way I see it, New Orleans is like a suburb of Paris, Paris is a suburb of London and London's a suburb of Marrakesh! That's how I look at the world, in any case! The whole thing would probably have been a lot more difficult a hundred years ago, but these days you can zip from one city to another in just a few hours and I don't see why I shouldn't take advantage of that. And then, of course, it's a lot easier to go to Morocco and play with musicians in their native environment rather than bring them over here.

Which is exactly what you ended up doing, in fact, going out to play with a group in Morocco…
Yes, that's right. On the new album I worked with B'Net Marrackech, a group of female musicians who live in Morocco. I met them a while back when I was out in Morocco doing a concert - they even ended up getting on stage and singing with us one night. Anyway, when I sat down and thought about the new album B'Net Marrackech sprang to mind immediately. I didn't have to go through the yellow pages, you know! (Rachid bursts out laughing at this point and almost chokes himself to death on his coffee!)

Made in Medina features a real melting-pot of styles. You mix everything from traditional Arab chaâbi to electronic dance beats and rhythm'n'blues, and there's even a touch of funky Hammond organ on one track, La Vérité. But on the whole, Made in Medina seems to have much more of a rock feel than your other albums…
Yes, that was very much a deliberate choice… I've used rock as a base for all my albums, in fact, but this time round maybe it's a bit more pronounced. The thing is, I love the sound of the guitar. I love the fact it's got this very dark, and at the same time, very heroic feel. But there are a lot of other instruments on the new album too - there's the violin, the oud*, the qanoun* and lots of different percussion and drums like the derbouka, the tabla and the bendir. I grew up with this total mix of Eastern and Western instruments and that's something that's very much part of me now.

Do you appreciate having your music labelled as 'world' or does it get on your nerves sometimes?
No, I can't say it particularly gets on my nerves. Besides, I've moved on now - record stores have put "Made in Medina" in the rock section! I've had all kinds of labels attached to my work in the past, you know. I've even been through periods where I was dubbed 'techno' or 'ethno-techno' … I think people have a natural urge to label things and if that gives them some kind of reassurance, then that's OK with me. Anyway, the term 'world music' has become a pleonasm these days - all the music we listen to now is 'world'.

I read an article in a music magazine recently which described you as an Arab version of Joe Strummer (the famous frontman of UK punk/rock outfit The Clash)...
Really? (Rachid frowns and looks a bit bemused). Well, that's pretty flattering. Strummer's a brilliant musician… It's a compliment to be compared to him - isn't it?
You recorded most of the songs on Made in Medina in Arabic. Why in Arabic rather than French?
Because French is an instrument I don't feel all that comfortable using. When I sing in Arabic it comes out totally spontaneously without me having to think at all. I use two languages, French - which I use on a daily basis, more than Arabic, in fact - and Arabic which I use as a musical instrument. Earlier on in my career when I sang in Arabic it was also a way of asserting my identity.

There is a tiny bit of French on your new album, though, on the love song Ho chérie chérie.
That song revives the old "Franc-arabe" tradition. You know, there was a time when Algerians sang in this peculiar mix of French and Arabic. It's a very old tradition which dates back to the beginning of the last century. Ho chérie chérie was my way of paying tribute to this tradition. Besides, I think the two languages work really well together - the linguistic mix on "Ho chérie chérie" sounds really good.

Well, seeing as I don't speak a word of Arabic, I have to admit I didn't understand many of the lyrics on the other songs. There was one song I was particularly intrigued by, Ala Jalkoum.
It's a song about leaving your homeland, a song which evokes how a person feels when he leaves and the reasons he goes. In a way, the song refers to what's going on in Algeria right now. I was 10 years old when I left Algeria, but I keep in touch, I go back there every now and then… I recorded Ala Jalkoum as a duet with Femi Kuti. I knew Femi's father, Fela, when he was alive. And it was normal for me to end up meeting Femi because we've got the same music publishers and the same manager. I really wanted "Ala Jalkoum" to have a bit of an African feel to it and Femi's voice fitted exactly with what I had in mind.

And what about Galactic, the group you worked with in New Orleans?
Well, I knew I wanted to make some kind of link between the rhythms of North Africa and the voodoo trance stuff in New Orleans. Of course, there are also certain similarities between the history of New Orleans and the history of other French-speaking countries like Algeria… I wanted to bring the two together in the most natural way possible.
I met Galactic in New Orleans the first - and only - time I went out there, exactly a year ago now. I liked New Orleans but at the same time I found the place a bit depressing because apartheid is still in force over there. New Orleans is still very much divided into blacks on one side and whites on the other and I find that really shocking.

Are you planning some sort of international tour to promote your new album?
Well, I haven't got any precise dates lined up yet, but yes, I'd like to travel the world with the new album. There's one continent I haven't been to yet, and that's South America - and then China, I definitely wouldn't mind touring China…

Interview: Julie Street

(*oud = Middle Eastern version of the lute)
(*qanoun - a 70-stringed zither)

Rachid Taha Made in Medina is released on Barclay on October 3rd
Rachid Taha will be in concert in Paris at the Elysée Montmartre on November 8th.
A French tour is also planned for this autumn.