Rachid Taha

★★★★ Rock’n’Raï BARCLAY. CD/DL/LP Two years on from his death, the Franco-Algerian rebel gets the definitive farewell he deserves. There are few acts whose ‘Best Of’ would cover quite as many bases: Rachid Taha’s diverse tastes reflected not just his magpie eye but the experience of the immigrant growing up in an unwelcoming melting pot. Open with Abdel Kader, a tribute to a 12th century Sufi saint, throw in a sarcasmheavy chanson cover (Charles Trenet’s Douce France), the glorious global club anthem Ya Rayah, big-beat anti-racist house bangers Indie and Voilà Voilà, and the back-to-its-roots Rock El Casbah (Taha cheekily liked to claim to have inspired The Clash song in the first place), and you have a measure of the man and his many faces. Previous compilations have attempted to pin him down – the Arabic Strummer, the rootsy rocker – but found his essence elusive. He was all those things and always a wee bit more.