Search - Cheb Khaled :: Ya Taleb

Ya Taleb Review

P. Kelley | SC United States | 01/12/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This album was produced during Cheb Khaled's final days in Algeria, just prior to his emigration owing to a fatwah pronounced against various rai artists. For those who know Khaled only from his "Kenza" and other recent Western audience-influenced releases, the sound is more raw and the drum rhythms, especially, are less stolidly 4/4, though no less riveting in their exotic funkyness. The result is a much more spontaneous and improvisatory sound, and one wonders in retrospect how much was lost in some of the newer releases. Of particular interest is an earlier, more syncopated version of "Serbi serbi"--one of my favorites, and the opening tune of the album "N'ssi n'ssi." No extended "dance mixes" here or interminable saxaphone solos, just an undiluted and feverish form of eclectic music, the likes of which have not been heard in the West since the demise of the Clash..."