I was in Brussels last weekend for the 3-day Couleur Café music festival. It was my third Couleur Café – it’s becoming a bit of a tradition.

If you’ve never been you should definitely check it out next year. I think the venue is changing in a couple years, so next year will be your last chance to check-out the festival at Tour et Taxi, a great festival grounds on the edge of Brussels. It’s apparently moving to the Atomium or thereabouts.. we’ll see how that works out. (Is there still that hilariously frightening Charlemagne Palestine exhibit of weird puppets inside the Atomium?)

The music at Couleur Café is always good, the event is well-organized, you eat well, the weather is inevitably sunny – at least every year I’ve been – and Brussels is a very fun place to spend a weekend if you know/meet the right people. A big plus is that Couleur Café, like Solidays in Paris but minus the attitude, is in a city instead of a muddy field somewhere.

The line-up this year was pretty good. You can never see everyone at these festivals, especially if you’re going to survive the million chopes in the uncharacteristically hot, sunny Belgian weather, but I did manage to catch quite a few good shows.

Today we’ll hear some music from some of this year’s highlights including Bibi Tanga, Asian Dub Foundation, Khaled, Alpha Blondy, Patrice, Cesaria Evora and the Kasai All-Stars.

I didn’t know Bibi Tanga before the festival – great show. Asian Dub Foundation put on a good, loud and sweaty set as usual. Patrice really rocked the crowd. Unfortunately for me, the Kasai All-Stars set had some of the worst sound I’ve ever heard. I was really looking forward to seeing them but the show was almost unlistenable due to bad mixing, bad mics.. oh well. Alpha Blondy was, well, an Alpha Blondy show with plenty of smoke in the air and dazed franco-reggae youth in the sun. Cesaria Evora looked like she’d seen a ghost or suffered a stroke, but her music still goes so well with the nice weather. (And no, Hocus Pocus didn’t actually play with her. That’s just a 20syl remix I like.. a nod to the Paris hiphop scene.) And we all know that Khaled is classic.

There was much, much more – some that I saw, much that I didn’t – but that’s enough for a big weekend. I’m still tired but Couleur Café is well worth the trip every year.

Big love to the whole Belgium crew – always a pleasure to see you guys.

PS Happy Canada Day!

Bibi Tanga – It’s The Earth That Moves
Asian Dub Foundation – Flyover
Alpha Blondy – Brigadier Sabary
Cesaria Evora – Petit Pays (20syl remix)
Kasai Allstars – Quick As White
Patrice – Fear Rules
Khaled – Raba Raba

I feel compelled to write again about Mariem Hassan. She’s really amazing.

I posted her song, La Tumchi Anni, when I featured the Rough Guide to African Blues a little while back. I’ve since bought her 2002 release, Mariem Hassan con Leyoad.

She’s one of the principal musical voices of the Sahrwai people from Western Sahara, or the Saharawi Democratic Arab Republic, as they and 76 other nations call/recognize it.

When she’s not belting out tunes, Hassan works as a nurse in the “occupied Sahara”.

This quote from World Music Central sort of sums things up: “Before the war, we did songs of love and beautiful things but the war and the lack of our land made us talk of more important thingsabout the kids, the martyrs, the war.”

You can learn more and buy this album at Calabash, National Geographic and Stern’s. There’s even a fan blog about her here.

Mariem Hassan – ID Chab

A couple tracks from another recent Rough Guide release: North African Café. As usual it’s a solid compilation, this time of music inspired by or coming directly from the café scene in North Africa and its outposts abroad.

Jean-Pierre Smadj is a French-Tunisian oud player who likes to mix up North African music. Today’s track is by his S.O.S. project, a collaboration between Smadj, Orhan Osman and Savas Zurnasi. It reminds me a lot of early Gotan Project.

Akli D is an Algeria-born, Berber musician who also likes to mix it up a bit, combining shaabi music and other Kabyle sounds with a variety of styles. Parisian readers might remember his group Les Rebeuhs Des Bois.

Manu Chao produced his latest album, Ma Yela, where today’s track comes from. I’ve been meaning to see him live for a while now but I’m never free when he’s playing. Soon, soon..

Smadj presents S.O.S. Project – Hat
Akli D – Barman

There hasn’t been enough North African music on Benn loxo. Living in Paris it’s hard to avoid the sounds of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia- the languages, concerts, restaurants, cultural centers and quartiers are all around me. Several prominent North African musicians live full or part-time in Paris. L’Institut du Monde Arabe is one of my favourite contemporary Parisian buildings. Tajine and couscous are standard fare.

On that note, Abderrahmane Abdelli is an Algerian-born singer and oud-lute player. He’s from Kabylie, home of the Kabyl, an ancient Berber tribe, but has lived in Belgium since 1986.

I usually avoid the term “world music” but today’s find is nothing but: Abdelli’s 2003 release, Among Brothers, was recorded over three years on four continents with musicians from all over. The music mixes Berber singing and instrumentation with elements of Cape Verdian, Azerbaijanian and Burkinabe music, plus influences from other parts of the Magreb.

A lot of the lyrics on this album speak of exile and the injustices committed against the Kabyl people in Algeria. Don’t be fooled by the title of today’s track, Asiram. It translates into “hope” but the subtitle reads, “The loss of hope one feels when confronted with the lack of justice.”

I love the beginning and build of today’s track, and the accordian before the break in the 2nd minute goes well with my recent listening theme. The flute also got me thinking about those early Jethro Tull listening sessions years ago with my father.

Abdelli – Asiram

I’ll continue on my Algerian kick today with some beautiful music by Souad Massi. I’m not sure why I haven’t given her music a closer listen in the past. Now I’m hooked. Thanks to Henri for letting me have a second listen.

Souad Massi was born in Algeria in 1972. She came from a musical family and learned guitar at a young age, studying flamenco (she loves Paco De Lucia) and other styles.

Early on she played in a variety of groups, from folk to rock, but didn’t have much interest in traditional Algerian music. That changed over time and Massi gradually developed a beautiful-sounding Algerian traditional/modern-Western hybrid style.

In 1999 she arrived in Paris with a splash at a Algerian women’s concert at the Cabaret Sauvage and never looked back. She lives here now and has released four albums, each of which is steadily increasing her international reputation.

Three tracks today: two from her 2001 release, Raoui, and one from her 2002 album, deb.

Souad Massi – Ghir enta
Souad Massi – Bladi
Souad Massi – Rani Rayha

I liked that Maurice El Medioni track from yesterday’s post so much that I picked up more of his music today.

Back in 1947 when he was only 19 years old, Medioni, or “Boogie” to his friends, invented his “pianoriental” playing style that blends rai with elements of Latin and French chanson music.

Today’s music is off Maurice El Medioni’s 1982 release, Pianoriental, re-released by Buda in 2002. The music on this album is much more piano-based. I love the way most tracks start with streaming melodies using Arabic scales, often for several minutes, before the Algerian percussion and Latin influence kicks in.

This North African trend will continue for the next few days. I’ve had two tagines in the last 24 hours and I’m just getting started…

Maurice El Medioni – Ouine Rak
Maurice El Medioni – Touchia Sica

I don’t want to seem like a Rough Guide fanboy or anything, but the CDs they graciously keep sending me are consistently great. The latest, The Rough to Latin-Arabia, is of particular interest because lately I’ve been trying to pull my Arabic music knowledge out of the depths of ignorance.

I was going to post Rhany’s track, Chan Chan, but Paul over at Aurgasm beat to it. You also on the Rough Guide dist list? Either way, that’s cool, because I’ll post some Maurice El Medioni whose life story is conducive to a great post title. I also love any song that starts with the lyrics, “tu as assisté à ma naissance.”

Born in the Algerian rai hot-spot of Oran, Medioni got his start playing piano for American troops after Algeria was “liberated” from France in 1942. He had to flee in 1962 following a rise in intolerance towards Algeria’s Jewish population and he eventually settled in Paris.

Medioni blends rai and various Latin musical styles to create a sound very much appropriate for the Parisian cabaret scene.. or a Cuban salsa bar. There’s a good quote over at the Piranha records site that sums it up:

“The basis of my music is Andalusian, but I mix in Boogie Woogie, Jazz and Latin. Despite this my music still has the resonance of the Maghreb.”

The good people over at fly.co.uk have written much more about Medioni if you’re curious.

Maurice El Medioni – Oran Oran