Post Show: Rachid Taha + Vieux Farka Touré + The Heliocentrics

Posted on November 25, 2009 by Sam Dub

Reviews

One minute Taha is spitting and growling his lyrics over a thunderous Bo Diddely riff, the next he is moving on to an Algerian dance tune dissected with bursts of heavy-metal guitar.
– Robin Denselow, The Guardian

This isn’t world music, this is the natural heir to the original punk rock movement when young musicians sought wider roots to the rock music they wanted to play.
– Nick Tesco, live4ever

The pressures of context – the smart, seated environs of tonight’s venue – give way to the raw, percussive movements which drive Taha’s unique combination of such disparate genres as rock, rai and worldbeat.
– Jack Riley, The Independent

Live Photos

Vieux Farka Touré has a warm charisma that unites the members of his band and his audience. The rhythms and soundscapes that he created, revealing both traditional and modern-day Malian influences, wove a web of strength, wisdom and eclecticism.

Swaggering, Jagger-esque, onto the stage, Rachid Taha delivered what he is now renown for: an exceptional rock show, informed by his Algerian heritage and European experience. By the second song a group of people were by the front of the stage dancing; this grew until hardly anyone in the Festival Hall was left in their seat. Apart from giving the security team a headache, this charged atmosphere of celebration and impassioned rhythm brought out a feeling of communal optimism and a swiftly-advancing appreciation of an artist I had never seen before. As a finale Taha brought Farka Touré and friends back on stage for what can unashamedly the called a musical ‘fusion’ culminating in a performance of The Clash’s Rock The Casbah.
– Francesca Perry

Francesca Perry is an intern with the Hayward Gallery at Southbank Centre and freelance photographer

Vieux Farka Touré