Customer Reviews

Live (Dig)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Postcard from Rachid Taha's recent world tour. The Led Zep reference is not a joke - he gives them a shout out in "Foqt Foqt" and indeed this music is closer to rock than to rai. Aurally, the sound, featuring Taha's declamatory baritone and the Francois Delfin's hard edged lead guitar, reminds me as nothing so much as late 1970s/early 1980s John Cale, but with derbouka (percussion), lute, and keyboard synths providing the Arabic orchestral string parts. Steve Hillage adds a second guitar on six cuts, and on some cuts ("Medina," "Voila Voila") the band, in effect, plays techno live. Quite a disk.

Rachid Taha's studio CDs have only hinted at the relentless intensity of his live shows. Even the excellent DVD of his "1, 2, 3 Soleils" concert in Paris with fellow rai stars Khaled and Faudel falls short of what Taha can do with his own band doing his own material (I saw most of last year's big tours -- U2, Tom Petty, Prince, Madonna -- and Taha could have held his own with any of them). "Rachid Taha Live" fills the void with a selection of tunes from his last four CDs (including "Barra Barra," familiar to some from the soundtrack to "Black Hawk Down"), and it rocks the house. Record stores file his releases in the "World Music" ghetto, but this isn't yuppie background music: Taha is a loud, crazy roughneck with great stage moves and a tight band. You need this CD in your life. After you've heard it, you'll also need to email Taha's Mondo Melodia label and say: "Why isn't this guy touring the States?"

This is one of the best live albums I have ever heard. I usually dislike live albums because of the extraneous noise, but the sheer energy of this performance makes everything else seem pale. Rachid Taha takes essential north African/Arabic rai and folk rhythms and overlays a pounding kicking rock drum/bass/guitar and belts out the songs in Arabic. It is interesting to see the sound morph into techno trance in a live performance. I can never get tired of this album. Go for it!

This is a truly amazing adrenaline packed surge of raw power in a style way above every day "music". Get it if you like the truly unique.
It is dynamite!!!

I, too, saw Rachid Taha's show in San Francisco last year and I agree that after seeing U2 and Madonna that same year in much larger venues, Rachid really held his own. The Live disc captures the essence of the amazing energy that was present at his show that somehow isn't there in his (albeit excellent) studio albums. I'm a little depressed that a few gems he sang at his concert ("Kelma", "Habina" and "Qalantiqa" for example) were omitted on the live disc but I guess you can't win 'em all.

I rank Rachid Taha's show at Bimbo's 365 in San Francisco as one of my best concert experiences ever (and I've been to MANY) and this CD helps keep that incredible memory intact.

Until you can see Rachid Taha live, this excellent CD may help tide you over. It is of very high quality for a 'live', composed mainly of songs from 'Made in Medina' and includes guest performances by Taha's producer Steve Hillage on guitar and world-music star Femi Kuti on vocals and saxophone. An accompanying video of this concert is available in France. I was lucky enough to see him live in a small club date in 2001 and that frenzied and ecstatic evening was my treasured high point of that very strange year. He is that good.

This music is some of the best rock I've heard in a long time. I don't understand the language but it doesn't matter. Every track on this cd is great and the sound quality excellent. I just wish the cd could have been longer.

Yeah, someone used a song called "Barra Barra" as the background music on a video. That is how I heard it, which led me to search for the artist's name. Otherwise, I would have never heard it. I'm glad we're no longer limited to the garbage played on American radio these days. Rachid Taha has fast become one of my favorite artists.

I bought this album at the same time as Rock El Casbah and Live is a better album. Having said that, get both albums because there are about 12 differents songs between the two albums. I became interested in Rachid Taha after buying the Black Hawk Down soundtrack. I don't speak French or Algerian but language is not a barrier.

Ya Rayah was the reason I purchased this CD; which has an excellant Samba rythm and the Muslim women yowling in the audiance - best to stick with the Rai Music and not to imitate Rock/Roll. Keep your culture in the music and rythms..not Led Zeppelin or Jimi Hendrix.

Would like to listen to the studio version of Ya Rayah to compare with the Live version. Like Peter Frampton, his live album was great. Very few artist's live versions are worth listening to.

I usually don't like CD's made from live shows but this one was true quality. Taha's voice carries very well and all the songs were great but BARRA BARRA totally rocks!!!!