Made in Medina

Rachid Taha

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 6, 2001)
• Original Release Date: November 7, 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Ark 21
• ASIN: B0000584Y0
• Also Available in: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #52,851 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #8 in	Music > World Music > Africa > Algeria
  #37 in	Music > World Music > Rock

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
After reinterpreting Arab classics on Diwân, Rachid Taha returns with a stunning collection of original compositions that owes as much to rock as to his Algerian rai roots, connecting the dots between Europe and the Maghreb. Here he again teams with producer Steve Hillage (Gong, System 7), whose guitar work and arrangements provide the muscular frameworks for Taha's songs and emotive voice. Rachid's new direction has all the power of rock, as on "Foqt Foqt," which maintains an insistent riff while retaining the delicacy and polyrhythms characterizing North African music. "Ala Jalkoum" offers a duet with Afrobeat superstar Femi Kuti while "Verité" and "Ho Cherie Cherie" could have come from a Peter Gabriel album. Made in Medina is a massive, but still natural, step forward that establishes Taha as the most visionary Algerian singer today. --Chris Nickson

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars radio tarifa meets rock guitar, April 20, 2001

By	M. H. Bayliss "book queen" - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This album has inspired me to seek out his first more traditional album. Though I too find all these songs infectious, I enjoy the traditional element more and sometimes find the harsh rock guitar overwhelming -- I guess it's that I enjoy the Algerian side of the music more than the driving guitar side. Still, these songs are excellent. I've listened to the CD about 10 times and am still not tired of it at all. It's even good to exercise to. If you like more mellow sounding North African music, try Radio Tarifa which to my taste is perhaps a tad better, but it's a close call.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars very infectious, March 10, 2001

By	"shakil2" (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews

This was my first CD by Taha and am already a fan. The melodies are so infectious that soon you will find yourself humming them all the time without even knowing a word they mean. The middle eastern rhythms mixed with night club beats make it impossible to resist singing along or staying still. The tracks have intensity of rock music with rhythm of eastern melodies.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars rock and rai, May 25, 2001

By	shimi subramaniam "shimarella" (San Antonio, TX United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

i thought this was pretty amazing. i love music that breaks down the barriers between folkloric and western dance styles, which is why i'm a big six degrees records fan. anyway, i thought every track on this album was sucessful and infectious. i was grooving to track two's electric guitar stylings, and every track just got better and better, from both a dance standpoint and one of purely appreciating how taha has melded traditional rai with other styles. if you're looking for a more genteel kind of fusion , this isnt it.