The Industrial Twilight: Algeria

Showing posts with label Algeria. Show all posts

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Demokhratia ‎- "Bled El Petrole Takoul Lekhra" [2009]

Artist: Demokhratia

Title: Bled El Petrole Takoul Lekhra

Genre: Hardcore

Country: Algeria

Release date: 2009

Track List:

Poumpi L'Efuel Ou Enbi3
Boudinar
El Fahem
Lemssid (Usine À Bombes)
Ana Enbi3lek Ana Rabak
Ana Jeune Algerien
Ministere Des Anciens Moujahidine, Ministere Des Actuels Serakine
Seb3iyem
Sonatrach Etrih Khra
BMP (Beghlerized Mass People)
Legal Prostitution
Nigrou Genocide 2
Madrasset L'Ehlak

To be honest it isn't my favourite kind of hardcore, but a band from Algeria playing such kind of music with highly political lyrics definitely deserves some attention. "Bled El Petrole Takoul Lekhra" ("Country Of Petrol And You Eat Shit" or something along these lines) is the first Algerian punk album that was released on vinyl (by France-based Darbouka Records). However, it looks like they aren't the only punks in the Algerian underground - Beghlerass and As We Fuck are from Algeria too:

Download

Friday, December 7, 2012

Azar - "Damya" [2006]

Artist: Azar

Title: Damya

Genre: Neofolk

Country: Algeria

Release date: 2006

Track List:

Ifurkan
Unknown cover
It-tij
Zagder
Child & Time
Id-dhess
Crimson Towers (Dissection cover)

Another dark folk project with a quite exotic place of origin - this time it's Algeria. Azar is listed as a folk/black metal project on most sites, but this particular demo is pure instrumental neofolk. There's one more demo of Azar called "Izorane" which actually does sound like folk/black metal, but I didn't like it as much as this one. The person behind Azar describes his music as "Amazigh/Berber Metal", where "Amazigh peoples" refers to the pre-Arab population of the North Africa (known as "Berbers" in Europe). It's really refreshing to hear some good neofolk based on non-European tradition (leaving aside the Chinese scene), as I'm tired of these "neofolk is fundamentally European genre!"-claims. Yes, it looks like Berbers/Kabyles/Amazighs are traditionalists too, but their ideologies doesn't look as reactionary as those of many European neofolk bands. Their place in the history of North Africa is akin to the place of Celts and Basques in the European history - but Basques and Irish Republicans are known all around the world, while the Berbers aren't...

Download

About this blog

I created this blog mostly because I wanted to practise my English skills, and to showcase the industrial, gothic, punk, metal, neofolk and progressive rock scene of Russia/ex-USSR and Eastern Europe (especially Hungary) in the meanwhile.

As you can see, this blog doesn't take itself seriously enough, but I hope I'm doing good enough with my reviews even if my proficiency in English is limited. Along with the aforementioned stuff from Eastern Europe, I occasionally post some classic and rare albums that aren't to be missed, and generally whatever I want. Other categories of note:

* finno-ugric rarities - various music (including pop) in minor Finno-Ugric languages which I'm interested in because of my heritage. The music from Hungary, Finland and Estonia can be found under the respective categories;

* lo-fi - various poorly recorded demos from before 2000 that are of historical importance. Most of these demos come from the USSR era, so you might want to check out the USSR category as well.

As of now, I try to post only music that has already been made free by the artists themselves, or the rare old releases that are out of print. But if you're an artist and would like me to remove the download links of your work, just contact me using the form below.

Sorry, I don't do reviews by request, I don't have the time. Moreover, I think the bands that feel the need to advertise themselves by sending their demos to as many blogs as possible are usually just plain boring. If you want to contact me for any other reason, use the contact form below.

It should be obvious enough that reviewing anything on here doesn't equals endorsement of artists' personal views. This especially concerns neofolk and martial industrial. It'd be fair enough to say that I have the same approach to the political and religious topics in these genres as Laibach do.

Many of the female musicians featured on my blog are amateur models, and in many cases their modelling work is no less interesting than their music. Right now I'm working on giving it a separate section of the blog (just in case if anyone wants my review to be only about their music and not their looks). The work is in progress, check back later if you're interested.

The title of my blog comes from a song by The Kovenant (album "SETI", 2003).