Majid Soula

★★★

Chant Amazigh HABIBI FUNK. CD/DL/LP

Collection of Algerian DIY artist’s ’80s work: he knows how to get under your skin.

It starts inauspiciously – Algerie Maroc is a none-moreearly-’80s production with no great rhythm or melody – and you would be excused for wondering if the world needs a prestige compilation of Soula’s music, originally released 40 years ago and only on shortrun own-label cassettes in France. But Habibi Funk don’t often put a foot wrong, and very quickly the mood shifts and we are transported to the mountainous Kabylia region of northern Algeria, where Soula has tapped into a delirious brand of Arabic house – fast, repetitive and insistent, impossible to date – that suggests he was ahead of the curve for a good part of his career. If the hipsters’ adoption of Syria’s Omar Souleyman left a slightly sour taste in your mouth, rest assured that Chant

Amazigh will have you wanting more before the final fade-out. David Hutcheon