Customer Reviews

La Kahena

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a son seeking his mother's song, DJ Cheb I Sabbah returns to his roots in La Kahena to record the music of his homeland.
The album takes its name from the seventh-century Jewish-Berber La-Kahena: warrior, worshiper, mother of five, who gathered an army of disparate populations to ward off invading armies in their takeover of North Africa.Much like La-Kahena herself, this album merges the stories of Sufi, Jewish, Muslim and Berber peoples. Mixing live recordings taken from three continents, Cheb I Sabbah offers us eight heart-thumping tracks, which merge traditional trance with subtle contemporary beats, and offer listeners the voices of some of the most respected women singers of the Maghreb region.
Defined by tradition, these religious songs integrate the use of the call and response. This calling out is no longer confined within the circle of singers, but acts as a common ground between traditions. Ultimately, these songs are Cheb I Sabbah's contribution to a more integrative inter-faith dialogue.
Stocked with rare recordings, the album opens with the solo voice of Algerian-born Cheba Zahouania, calling on the name of Cheb I Sabbah's birthplace. La Kahena includes such groups as Haddrates, a group of Moroccan women who chant traditional Sufi music in praise of the prophet Mohammed. It also captures two haunting songs by Khadija Othmani, singing "Alkher Illa Doffor - Peace is Found behind the Wounds" and "Ad Izayanugass - What Will Happen Will Happen." The album even grants us a taste of singer-songwriter Michal Cohen, performing "Im Ninalou" in Hebrew.
Cheb I Sabbah shifts away from the typical DJ'd world beats, which veil the spiritual truth of the music by concealing it under chronic drum and bass effects. Despite the mixing, the recordings on La Kahena maintain their authenticity and the chants retain their inherently hypnotic effect.
Unlike his first three albums, Cheb I Sabbah does little to modify the live recordings; instead he allows them to unfold and interact with each other. One track bleeds into the next, songs blend, voices merge and retract.
These echoing chants haunt me. I wonder at the commonalities between cultures, the possibilities of uniting people by acknowledging the roots we share. This record acts as both a preservation of, and doorway into, our social history. Although these songs return us to Cheb I Sabbah's ancestry, they also invite us into the presence of people united together through music. Despite the trend in world music to remix traditional songs, I welcome this electronic digression through cultural histories, and allow these songs to bring me back to the roots of trance music.

I will not take every single track to write a description about, but I prefer talking about the "project" as a whole, from the very beginning the music invades your state of mind smoothly starting from the vocals and ending up with the usual Sabbah's humming BASS.
It's an amalgam between folkloric waltz and temporary melodic techniques, but still it's an introduction for the western audience in the first step, for if we want to be fair, it does not totally reflect the soul of the Arabian music, that's not a point of weakness, but it's more like an introduction for it, and I disagree with the reviewer who wanted to picture it as an African groove, and I wish that in the next Sabbah's "project" we will be able to hear more of Persian, Turkish, Hebraic and Arabian harmonies (A dialogue between a Santour, Sez , Tabla and Oud)!.
If you are interested in the global cultural communication, buy this CD for its inspirational musical offering.

Having previously loved "Krishna Lila" and "As Far As" I was impressed by Cheb's capabilities as a DJ/producer. Simply put, this CD is mindblowing!! It grabs you from the first track by Cheba Zahounia and her powerful voice and does not let up throughout the entire CD. Virtually every album I own (including many classic recordings) can't maintain their level of production excellence throughout. This one is that rare exception. It covers an amazing variety of styles from the Maghreb and is the very definition of the word "synthesis." I have yet to find an album from the world music genre which gracously brings together such traditional sounds and lyrics and maintains the regions style and classicism. I have heard of the
legendary group B'Net Marrkech, but to hear them on such a forward thinking and "modern" album blew me away....imagine a group of older Arabic women, covered in their traditional wear, singing such powerful words from eras gone. Now comes along Cheb i Sabbah who brings an old world to a new era. You must sample
tracks 3, 7, 8 which are my faves!

I'm not a musicologist, but it's still incredibly
impressive. The acoustics are just phenomenal. The
female vocalists, Michal Cohen and Nadia, are truly
EXCEPTIONAL singers. The part of track 3 ("Toura
Toura") is such a catchy beat that you can't help but
start swaying along. Track 9 no exaggeration here, it
is simply excruciatingly gorgeous singing. The
instrumentalists are totally hypnotic, as well. Cheb
i Sabbah plays on a wide array of traditional North
African instruments, which lend this CD some amazing
aural richness. Plus, the lyrics are entirely in
Arabic, so it adds to the mystique of the lyrics, some
of which I read are poetic.

Absolutely first-rate stuff! Haunting and gorgeous.
Get it.

DJ Cheb I Sabbah has always given a new spin to devotional music. His debut album,"Shri Durga" explored Hindu devotional music honoring the warrior goddess Durga;his "Krishna Lila" explored the music of Northern&Southern India and devotion to the blue god Krishna.

In "La Kahena",Cheb I Sabbah explores the Sufi devotional music of his native Algeria,complete with native singers,street sounds,percussionist Karsh Kale&the great bassist Bill Laswell. It is named for the Jewish Berber warrior woman La Kahena,who fought against Arab invaders of Algeria. The opening,"Why did I follow him?" is a tribal rave-up, gradually building in its longing. Its coda is a marvelous trancelike song of handclaps and chanting. "Toura Toura" is percussive and enchanting. "Praising of the saints" is a mesmerizing,hypnotic song.
"The Doors are Locked" and "Love's Chalice" are at once spiritual and sensual.

"La Kahena" takes time to grow. At times, it's repetitive. It's more mystical than the Algerian rai of Cheb Mami;it takes repeated listenings to fully appreciate. I liked it,but it's not Cheb I Sabbah's best. I look forward to hearing more from him.

I love all things Arabic and fusion and so it is no
wonder that I love this CD. It is an elegant blend of traditional Arabic music with modern techno remixing by renowned Cheb i Sabbah. It is a diverse collection of Arabic and North African instruments, voices, and sounds that makes it way to your soul but also keeps you on the dancefloor. Mchal Cohen's track Im Ninalou is simply haunting yet inspiring...It's a perfect amalgamation of the modern electronic and the ancient traditional. Great for groove trancing and great for spiritual relaxing. I never tire of Cheb i's deeply moving music. This is album is what Shri Durga was to the Asian Underground scene -- groundbreaking and original. Buy this CD!

Cheb I Sabbah seems like a really interesting guy. He was born in Algeria, moved to France with his family in the early sixties and ended up in Berkeley in 1968. He was totally into the hippie scene, with a girlfriend who had dated Neal Casady and made acid with Owsley, the Grateful Dead's chemist and soundman. So why do I find this CD so...BORING? It seems to lack the urgency of the other North African music I love (Ali Hassan Kuban, Abdel Aziz El Mubarek, Khaled, Idir, or even other North African ex-pats like The Orchestre National Des Barbes). Adbel Aziz El Mubarek swings more, Ali Hassan Kuban has better rhythms, Khaled is better than any of these singers and Idir has better melodies.

If you are thinking of buying this, LISTEN TO IT FIRST, if possible. The only option on Amazon might be hearing short samples, which doesn't really help much, I'm afraid. I am a big fan of the Beat magazine, and most of their columnists RAVED about this disc so I bought it. It just simply doesn't move me anywhere near as much as other North African music I have. Believe me, I WANT TO LIKE IT. After all I bought it at Tower Records here in Osaka and it wasn't cheap, but after trying and trying to get into it, I give up.

Want a great compilation of new North african music? I recommend Tea in Marrakech.

Edited to add: I just realized that the one song I kinda like (track seven "Im Ninalou") was performed by Ofra Haza on her album Seven Gates of Wisdom (ages ago), and her mostly acoustic version was better, to my ears.

This is the only word that came to my mind while listening to this album - sublime! This cd brings out the best of Middle Eastern music - its rhythms, its artistry, its depths, its traditions - while adding just enough electronica to make the songs more accessable to those who aren't familiar with music from North Africa.

I've often found that cd's which feature truly classical Middle Eastern music to be difficult for me to appreciate, owing to my unfamiliarity with the intricacies of this genre. I've rarely enjoyed modern 'Arabic Groove' music, which seems little more than 1970's disco music sung in Arabic.

This is what is amazing about 'La Kahena'. It so effortlessly meshes the the wonders of traditional North African sounds with some modern sensibilities. And I agree with previous reviews - the first track featuring Cheba Zahounia is unbelievable.

Cheb i Sabbah has done it again! Genious work
combining ethereal sounds from the Maghreb with such
powerful voices to complement. Toura Toura simply
takes you to another land, another time with such
mellow yet raw vocals. The album seems more like an
epic journey across the sands of the Saharan desert. A
Must HAVE for any world music fan

The middle tracks of this CD, particularly numbers five and six, leave little to nothing to be desired. They're an exceptional marriage of musical insistence and serenity; the motif of a single, seemingly much older woman leading a strictly responsive chorus of more youthful women, in what is very much a question-and-answer/declare-and-affirm musical manner, is nothing short of brilliant.

With perhaps one or two exceptions, the beats on all the tracks sound very true to the Middle Eastern and African roots behind much of today's modern rock. "Sadats" features a much more contemporary approach to percussive rhythm, but it works very well given the more festive and even somewhat raucous charatcer of the track. Cheb i Sabbah clearly has a penchant for additive musical build-up, and "Sadats" showcases this better than perhaps any other song on the disc.

Speaking of which, my favorite song of _La Kahena_, "Ad Izayanugass," features a very subtle but alarmingly effective increase in the volume of its choral response section. After being kicked off by a great laugh track at 05:45 (a very suitable noise that sounds like a small girl being tickled, or perhaps more appropriately, facing the threat of being tickled), the song segues into a processed mix of calm and distant female singers, vocalizing what sounds like a chant. Soon, at the cue of a stop-beat, they are abruptly headed up by the almost intrusive voice of an old woman, a sound rife with wisdom and wear, spatially much closer to the listener than the far-off chorus, who spend the rest of the song trying to catch up and overtake the older woman in sheer sound volume and amplitude. It is a wonderful, wonderful motif that works better for this type of music than anything that I've heard in a long time, precisely because the method is so well representative of assorted situations involving youth vs. old age. The best music sounds like truth, and much of this CD does.

"Alla Al'Hbab" is another superb track. The sound quality and technical skills of the musicians are enough to captivate, but the song is catchy to boot, and is quite simply full of a kind of brotherly/familial love. It's celebratory in the manner of "Sadats," but more intimately so -- like the difference between a parade and a wedding. The two prominent vocalists are exceptional; their voices are very unique and warmly incisive, and frankly very well recorded. I can understand every word of what's sung without any idea at all about the literal meaning behind the lyrics.

I'd heard some very small amount of Cheb i Sabbah's work before listening to this release. None of what I'd heard impressed me nearly as much as the music of _La Kahena_, which really isn't of the ambient variety of Cheb i Sabbah music that I'd heard previously. I want to hear more of him (and his musical companions) in this vein; as a big fan of Dead Can Dance, who ventured into this type of music later in their career, I hear too much "world" music of this flavor that's much too processed and overly-infused with contemporary aesthetics, music that eschews the respect for origins conveyed by DCD's magnificent compositions. Here's hoping that more musicians like DCD and Cheb i Sabbah crop up, artists who know the difference between blurring a line and crossing way past it!

-- Milo