Khaled
Born in Algeria but now based in France, Khaled is known as the king of Rai. He was born Khaled Hadj Brahim in 1960 in Sidi-El-Houri. Along with Egyptian, Spanish and French music influences, Khaled also listened to the Beatles and James Brown as a child. After learning to sing and play accordion, he left school at age 16 to record his first single. With a blend of funk, reggae and Arabic music, Khaled soon pioneered the transformation of rai from a local style to worldwide popularity by adding a synthesizer and drum machine. He moved to France in 1986 and released Kutche, his debut album. His first domestic work was a 1993 self-titled album. N'ssi N'ssi appeared the following year. 1996 saw the release of Sahra, and three years later King of Rai appeared.
John Bush, All Music Guide
Album: N'ssi N'ssi
[697-124 012-2]
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Released 1993 on Mango Records (© 1993 Barclay). All tracks written by Khaled Hadj Brahim, except tracks 3 & 8 written by Khaled Hadj Brahim & Kada Mustapha, and track 4 by Khaled Hadj Brahim & Safty Boutella. Produced by Don Was (1,3,4,8), Philippe Eidel (2,5,6,7,9), Laurent Guenuau (11) and Richard Evans (10). Remixes of tracks 2, 4 & 8 feature on the Going Global compilation, and 'Alech Taadi' features in the police chase scene of the 1997 film 'The Fifth Element' (although doesn't feature on the movie sound track CD).
CD Single: Di Di
[CIDM 837 / 571 843-2]
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Released 1997 on Mango Records (a division of Island Records). All tracks written by Khaled Hadj Brahim, except track 3 written by Khaled Hadj Brahim, Akhenaton & Shurikin. Tracks 1 & 4 remixed by BBB. The track to home in on here is the BBB Twink Muscle Mix which is a fantastic hard trance experience, which blends the lyrics of Khaled with the pounding beats of the Western dancefloor - this is a totally mesmerising remix that one can get really absorbed into.
CD Single: Kebou
[BARCLAY 579 063-1] |
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Released in 1995 on Barclay Records. Khaled's Kebou simmmers thanks to a startling re-jig from the electric pioneers and Bjork collaborators Fluke. The Fluke mix also features on the excellent Going Global compilation. The 132 BPM by Fluke is also pretty good, although i'm not overly keen on the X-Pensive mix (remixed by DJ Manu and Master Lexi). Note that the track listing on the vinyl and the sleeve lists the X-Pensive mix on Side-B, which is wrong, since it is the Fluke mix on the B-Side.
See also the Going Global compilation on Barclay Records.
