Search - Rachid Taha :: Tekitoi

Taha Rocks the House

R. E. James | Kingston, Jamaica | 02/08/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"What does it say of music when the most spellbinding artist in rock is a fire breathing Algerian based in France? And what does it say of the post 9/11 world when most of the world doesn't even know? Their loss, Tekitoi is the best album of 2005 (even though it came out in 2004). On his cover of The Clash's Rock the Casbah, the casbah rocks back-- harder that those limeys could have ever imagine, ditching the former's tentative funk for a devasting body quaking groove--and that's the worst song on the album! Of all the recent rai records this is the only one to come close to fulfilling the music's original rock and roll promise. And how. "Safi" pulls off the impossible: marrying Missy Elliot to Nirvana, then surpassing both. Indeed Tekitoi may be 2005's only true punk rock record. Furious with both Islamic fundamentalism and American paranoia he rages on like Primal Scream with a purpose. "Ask them Why," he yells to everybody and nobody in one song. "Who the @#$% are you!" he bellows in another (In Arabic and French, of course). Who said one has to mellow with age? And then there's the music. Taha had always flirted with punk, rai, funk, and techno but here he detonates with all at once. Angry and Proud, with music to burn, Tekitoi is most visceral music you will hear all year."

This stuff is most definitely haram.. naughty naughty naught

Charles Curtis | Jackman, Maine | 10/26/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I've been a huge fan of Rachid since he rocked the sndtrk in Blackhawk Down. His tunes went a long way toward making that film the classic it is. And this album is in every way the equal of the white phosphorus power punk he laid down there.



This guy is unbelievable. Arabic is a truly incredible language, one that has not really been given full reign to flower due to certain -ahem- cultural restraints that have usually bound its speakers, historically. Rachid has shed certain of those constraints like the Hulk erupting through his Hanes. The language snaps like a bullwhip, tears & slashes like a powersaw.



Virtually every song here sneers ferociously, and is guaranteed to crease your knickers. Like the best wedgie you've ever gotten.



Do yourself a favor. Buy this album, slap it in your car stereo and drive to Key West. Or Argentina. Whichever is farther. Driving music for driving. You'll be there before you know it, a crap eating grin on your face.



I'm sure there's a sheik in some inner sanctum of Al-Azhar, windowshades drawn, jamming air guitar to this stuff.



One can only hope."

Taha does it again

Bronx Angel | New York City USA | 11/24/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"rachid taha-eclectic, surprising, master of any genre he chooses-has produced a wonderful new album! I heard it in the stores in Montreal in October and did not have the time to stand in line and buy it and I regretted it every day since! Rock el Casbeh is brilliant, funny, funky, you will love it. I am glad to be the first one to review and if you see this, Rachid, great job, my friend."