La Kahena
On his new CD, named for a 7th-century freedom fighter, the Algerian mixmaster DJ Chebi i Sabbah takes the music of the North Africa and Moorish Spain on a magic carpet ride that floats electronica/techno effects over Berber, Jewish, Black African, and Arab instruments and genres, with vocals by some of world music's most evocative female singers. The enchantingraivocalist Cheba Zahouania is heard on the reggae influenced number, "Esh 'Dani, Alash Mshit." The Yemenite singer Michal Cohen adds her Semitic swing to the intoxicating "Im Ninalou," while the Moroccan group Haddarates sing in their mystical, Sufi-style on "Madh Assalhin." "Toura Toura," is motored by Brahim Elbelkani's Afrocentric,Gnawnatantric tempos and tones, and "Jarat Fil Hub" transports the listener back to the splendors of Andalusia via Cheb i Sabbah's wheels-of-steel alchemy, which easily moves Afro-Arab music across the sonic sands of time.--Eugene Holley, Jr.