There's a lot going on in this ambitious and successful cross-cultural collaboration between Algerian rai star Cheb Khaled, Algerian composer Safy Boutella, and French production wizard Martin Meisonnier. Khaled's slithering vocal improvisations are in full, Islamically incorrect effect over densely arranged old-school instruments (oud, violin, accordion, and many different drums) that Meisonnier and Boutella alter and echo within an inch of their former selves. Yes, it often sounds cluttered--but rai nearly always does. Khaled himself comes off supremely confident no matter how agitated his Arabic exhortations for liquor and sex. But it's his collaborators' apocalyptic dance-hall beats--especially on the sample-delic "La Camel" and "Minuit," a tango-rai inferno--that put the mustached melodicist over the top on this exciting and forward-looking 1989 album. --Richard Gehr
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