It was a minor sensation when Les Disques Bongo Joe reissued two tracks by Les Abranis in 2018. The Algerian band’s early releases are hard to find even after their reunion in 2007. As nice as it was to think that the heated psych-funk of »Chenar le Blues« and the imaginative reggae derivative »Avehri« were reintroduced to a wider audience, though, they alone could not adequately convey the history of this band. For it is one of indigenous resistance, post-colonial conditions and state repression that reveals much about the world at large. The group is made up of members of the Berber ethnic group of the Kabyles and was started after the independence of the Algerian state in the heart of, of all places, the former colonial power France where the band made a name for itself with its eclectic sound mix from the beginning of the 1970s. The compilation »Amazigh Freedom Rock 1973 – 1983«, accompanied by detailed liner notes courtesy of music anthropologist Simon Debarbieux, now documents the first iteration of the group before their break-up and later reunions. In the course of these eleven tracks, a musical panorama unfolds that ranges from psychedelic, funky rock to sometimes synthetic disco sounds and which is strongly indebted to the cultural heritage of its members, right down to the Kabyle-language lyrics. Les Abranis were able to celebrate some successes with this sound in France, North Africa and around the world, however at the same time were repeatedly confronted with repression in nationalist contexts. Accordingly, it is difficult not to consider this music to be somewhat utopian: The light-footed grooves of Les Abranis convey at the same time a self-confident statement of an oppressed minority, while also hinting at a future in which different cultures reconcile on the dance floor.
Various Artists
Synthesizing The Silk Roads
Ostinato