A wonderfully well-done collection – one that brings together some of the more hard-hitting tracks from the early days of Algerian rai music – cuts that stand in a really strong contrast to the more polished mode that showed up on record charts during the
big years of world music! This isn't the music of the major labels and associated imprints – and instead, almost all the cuts here were issued on small cassette-only releases, which almost seems to be the perfect format for the lo-fi approach of the cuts – often just
beats, keyboards, and slight instrumentation – topped by vocals that are incredibly expressive, even beyond the boundaries of language – and which soar out in a wonderful way! The leaner instrumentation only seems to enforce the strength of the singers – in ways that didn't always happen with later rai – and the set brings together 14 rare tracks, with work from Cheb Hader, Nordine Staifi, Chaba Ahmed, Tchier Abdelgani, Cheb Hindi, Houari Benchenet, Chab Mohamed Sghir, Benchenet, and Chab Hamouda.