More pop-rai with Hamani Hadjoum Tmouchenti & Messaoud Bellemou, courtesy toukadime

Check out Toukadime's latest broadcast here, which features a track from this Hamani record, also featuring of course, Messaoud Bellemou.

Please see my very long post on pop-rai, here.

Toukadime mix for Onorient + what 113 sampled on "Tonton du Bled"

The inimitable Toukadime did a mix for Onorient awhile back. Check it out here:

I didn't know people were doing mixes like this: you play the first tune on YouTube, leave it on, and it cycles you through the next 11 tracks. Great stuff, including the likes of Ahmed Wahby, Reinette l'Oranaise, Cheb Khaled, Line Monty (who I recently learned was 'discovered' by Charles Aznavour), Haim Botbol, El Kahloui Tounsi...

And I learned something I had not known from this mix, that the sample that the renowned French rap group 113 use on their 2000 hit (#5 on French charts) "Tonton du Bled" is from the first track on this playlist, Algerian ouahrani star Ahmed Wahby's "Harguetni Eddamaa." Check it out.

Toukadime Radio broadcast #28 (and I love in particular, Houria Habib & Tazi)

It's always a good day when Toukadime decide to put out another broadcast, and they've just put out #28. As always, a number of very fine tunes. I was impressed by the look of the track by Tazi ("404 Kahla"), which they posted with the broadcast.

It is a wonderful track, and you can also check it out here, on YouTube. Tazi Boukhari himself  posted it to YouTube, and he includes this information in the comments:

The song is written by Tazi, the music's by Blaoui Houari. Released in Lyon, France in 1972. The song deals with the French police and their dealings with the youth of the Place du Pont quarter in Lyon, in 1969. (If someone has more information on this, please post a comment.)

But my absolute favorite track from this broadcast was "Touil Elkelma" from Houria Wahab. It is not posted on YouTube, but you can purchase 4 other tracks by Houria on Amazon or eMusic, although I'm not sure any of these are quite as great as "Touil Elkelma."

Enjoy!

Middle Eastern Music Mixes for Your New Years: Old School North African and New Skool Mahraganat

 1. This isn't a new one but I just came across it. Krimau, one of the two dj's of Toukadime, did a mix back in 2012 for the website 716. It features the likes of Mazouni, Rabah Driassa, Boujemaa el-Ankiss, Cheikha Mangala Relizania and more. Grab it here.

2. And, a brand new mahraganat mixtape, courtesy Philip Battiekh, called El Battiekhawya meets Islam Chipsy in the Diaspora of Sha3besque Rhythm. With the likes of Islam Chipsy, al-Madfa3geya, Amr 7a7a, Sadat and Fifty, Battiekh, and other knowns and some unknowns. Really brilliant.

Recommended music: mahraganat and North African vinyl

1. Another very fine radio show from the estimable Toukadime. Broadcast #18. Vintage North African tunes. (But no playlist yet: come on, pals!). And to show how eclectic their tastes are, they conclude the show with Herbie Mann's "Caravan"! Don't miss this show.

Added Oct. 20, 2014: Here's the playlist:

Tazi Boukhari & Aouicha: Comment Faire?
Guerouabi: El Barah
Mohamed Chemoum: JSK
Mohamed Jerrari: Ya Mariam
Mohamed Jerrari: El Karrita
Mohamed Bergam: Farah El Islam
Bouchaib Bidaoui: Khoutna Yal Islam
Albert Suissa: Dar El Baida
Haja Mina el Gharbaouia & Haja Khadouj Bent Barek, Marechal Kibou: Jini Wlanjik
Albert Suissa: Ya Rabi Tsmeh Fli Daj
Mustapha Nainia - Khouya Bouya

2. The latest Middle Eastern and North African playlist from The Guardian's music blog, by John Doran. Souad Abdallah (Iraq), Maurice Louca (Egypt), Fayçal Azizi (Morocco) -- all interesting, well worth a listen and pursuing further. But what really struck me was the live track from E.E.K. feat. Islam Chipsy -- in concert in London on October 12. This is mad mad mahraganat music, and I've http://www.weather.com/weather/today/Fayetteville+AR+72701:4:USblogged about Islam Chipsy in the past. (Here, for instance, though one of the vids has vanished.) Check out what Doran has to say about them, the 'preternaturally talented keyboard player Islam Chipsy, flanked by drummers Khaled Mando and Islam Tata,' who have been driving crowds in Bristol, London and Newcastle wild. "In Cairo, the three-piece are usually hired to play large outdoor wedding celebrations and their sound has developed in tandem with a need to kickstart parties while often contending with battered old PA systems. Now, through playing indoors through really powerful rigs, their sound has morphed into something that is bordering on overwhelming. The tightly syncopated rhythmical assault is in a lot of ways analogous to carnival or marching musical forms such as soca, New Orleans second-line drumming, dancehall and calypso. However, these beats are played at hyperspeed by two drummers who can switch styles and tempos without dropping a beat, adept at providing a rigid framework for a virtuoso keyboard player whose individual technique includes firing out bewilderingly fast blasts of tone clusters deployed by punching, slapping and karate-chopping his keyboard at such a frightening speed that his hands become a blur of movement. A truly unique experience."

And now: check out the vid, and see whether Doran's enthusiasm isn't warranted.

3. John Doran also has a piece in Vice about the Cairo Liberation Front, a Dutch trio who make up a dance party unit that plays mahraganat. The article title describes what they do as "Wedding Dance Rave," which is certainly as good a synonym for mahraganat as the other synonyms in use, techno shaabi and electro shaabi. There's a mixtape of new (at least I guess new) mahraganat here as well, so download, listen, enjoy, start your own dance party unit if you dare.

More promo for Toukadime

Mashallah News recently published a very laudatory piece on Toukadime and their Sound Cloud radio channel which features Maghrebi music. I insisted in a previous post that you could translate Toukadime as "all vintage" (from tout -- all, French, and qadim -- old/vintage, Arabic), but maybe I'm the only one who thinks this is a viable pun for what they are about. Since the literal meaning of Toukadime/تقدم is 'present.'

In any case, be sure to read this and then be sure to follow Toukadime on Sound Cloud. And follow them on Youtube too.

Toukadime (all vintage) Radio presents: North African miniskirt music + some mini-jupe vids

The inestimable Toukadime Radio, which stands for tout qadim, that is "all" (in French) "old/vintage" (Arabic), has just made available its latest broadcast, #16. All songs about the 'mini jupe,' French for miniskirt, all from North Africa. Well, all except for two about the 'maxi.' Please listen.

I managed to find some youtube vids of the songs in question. Here's Slimani with "Mini Jupe A Fatima."

Mazouni's "Mini Jupe."

Chab Haj Mohamed Bouzoubaa, "Benate El Mackssi" (and this one is about the "maxi" not the "mini).

If you find any more, let me know!