Saturday, July 30, 2005
The things I don't know can completely fill the universe dept.
Rockin' the Casbah (with Greg Kot)
Taha remakes 'Rock the Casbah'
"On his latest album, 'Tekitoi,' the French-Algerian dance-punk maestro Rachid Taha doesn't just cover the Clash's "Rock the Casbah," he plays it with such dash and daring he might as well have written it. It's only fitting, Taha said. After all, the Clash wrote the song a year after briefly meeting the singer in 1981.
"'It was a very quick encounter, I ran into them backstage after a concert,' he said through a translator. 'I wanted them to produce my first album and handed them a demo tape. I never heard back from them, but I know they were influenced by what I gave them, just as I was influenced by them. Good spirits met that night.'
"At the time, Taha was in the band Carte de Sejour ('green card' or 'residence permit' - signifying Taha's status as an Algerian who had immigrated to France with his family when he was 10 years old, seeking a better life). To him it's no coincidence that the Clash song sounds very much like his old band, with its ululating vocals, strident guitars and snaky Eastern rhythms. In his remake, 'Rock El Casbah,' Taha punctuates each line with lusty Eastern strings. It's even more audacious and danceable than the Clash original, and Taha rolls consonants, shouts and growls with relish; he not only understands the song's wicked sarcasm, but also unearths its underlying anger.
"He was inspired to revisit it because of Clash singer Joe Strummer's death, and it anchors his sixth and best solo album, a furious fusion of electronic dance music, punk brio and Algerian groove. It's the culmination of a sound Taha has been refining all his life, ever since he was a deejay in Paris who specialized in mixing genres with impunity, as if the cultural barriers erected around rock, funk, Algerian rai music, Bollywood movie soundtracks and reggae didn't exist." ¶ 7/30/2005 02:44:00 PM
Rockin' the Casbah (with Greg Kot)
Taha remakes 'Rock the Casbah'
"On his latest album, 'Tekitoi,' the French-Algerian dance-punk maestro Rachid Taha doesn't just cover the Clash's "Rock the Casbah," he plays it with such dash and daring he might as well have written it. It's only fitting, Taha said. After all, the Clash wrote the song a year after briefly meeting the singer in 1981.
"'It was a very quick encounter, I ran into them backstage after a concert,' he said through a translator. 'I wanted them to produce my first album and handed them a demo tape. I never heard back from them, but I know they were influenced by what I gave them, just as I was influenced by them. Good spirits met that night.'
"At the time, Taha was in the band Carte de Sejour ('green card' or 'residence permit' - signifying Taha's status as an Algerian who had immigrated to France with his family when he was 10 years old, seeking a better life). To him it's no coincidence that the Clash song sounds very much like his old band, with its ululating vocals, strident guitars and snaky Eastern rhythms. In his remake, 'Rock El Casbah,' Taha punctuates each line with lusty Eastern strings. It's even more audacious and danceable than the Clash original, and Taha rolls consonants, shouts and growls with relish; he not only understands the song's wicked sarcasm, but also unearths its underlying anger.
"He was inspired to revisit it because of Clash singer Joe Strummer's death, and it anchors his sixth and best solo album, a furious fusion of electronic dance music, punk brio and Algerian groove. It's the culmination of a sound Taha has been refining all his life, ever since he was a deejay in Paris who specialized in mixing genres with impunity, as if the cultural barriers erected around rock, funk, Algerian rai music, Bollywood movie soundtracks and reggae didn't exist." ¶ 7/30/2005 02:44:00 PM
