Je suis africain

"Når det nu ikke kan være anderledes, synes jeg, at Rachid Taha slutter på toppen. Den genfødte afrikaner mestrer alt fra arabisk nostalgi-chaâbi, chanson, tilbagelænet sigøjnerjazz over raï til rock. Og hans tur gennem byen for sidste gang er en overlegent turneret rundtur i alle krogene, hvor vi vil savne hans kontrafej ... En svanesang der flyver".

Read review

"Finished shortly before his death a year ago, Rachid Taha's 10th solo album is, by distance, his best since Tékitoi, released in 2004, with the video for the title track demonstrating the sizeable hole in the French music industry his passing leaves. He sounds angry, passionate and delighted to be back on track, his wordplay and magpie fascination with the possibilities of music intact. On Je Suis Africain, West African talking drums, Arabic strings and soukous guitars play off each other; on Andy Waloo, a pun on Warhol, he lines up his heroes, from Johnny Cash to Elvis Presley, Oum Kalthoum to Lou Reed, over a driving house beat ... Closing track is Happy End, a love song that suggests Taha was in a good place".

"Top of the world" - "Reviewing the last will and testament of recently departed artists can sometimes be difficult with sentiment clouding critical judgement and a desire to err on the side of benevolence. No such dilemmas with Rachid Taha's final album (...), for Je Suis Africain stands alongside his finest work without any need for generosity ... Blending Arabic, African and European styles with a rebel aesthetic, the title-track is a Taha classic as talking drums, balafon, spiralling soukous guitars and an Arab-Andalusian orchestra collide gloriously, and over which he quotes an array of inspirational figures, including Bob Marley, Malcolm X, Frantz Fanon and Angela Davis ... 'Like a Dervish', his first ever song in English, has a desert-rock groove and a sly wit as he admits, 'I know I'm cheating, my English is not so rich.' 'Wahdi' is a duet featuring the haunting voice of Algerian singer Flèche Love over an extraordinary combination of Gnawa rhythms and Morricone-style mariachi trumpet ... This is a fine way to remember [Taha's] indomitable spirit".