Al-Qasar: Who Are We? album review — intoxicating Arabic psych-rock

Barbès is a neighbourhood in Paris’s 18th arrondissement whose popularity with people of north African heritage makes it a symbol of non-touristic France. It has given its name to the Orchestre National de Barbès, as well as to Rachid Taha’s first solo album, a Brooklyn bar and a record label. For Thomas Attar Bellier, “Barbès is this edgy, amazing, historically Algerian and still ungentrified part of the city . . . more typical of the way Paris really is than the Eiffel Tower or than the Louvre.” It is also home to Attar Bellier’s band Al-Qasar, which brings together musicians from France, Morocco, Egypt, Algeria and the US to play an intoxicating, highly torqued vision of a psychedelic Arab culture its protagonists dub “Arabian Fuzz”.

On their debut album Who Are We?, they celebrate their roots on the track “Barbès Barbès”, with Mehdi Haddab adding virtuoso electric oud, as if giving his blessing to a new generation following in the footsteps of Duoud and Speed Caravan. “Barbès Barbès,” raps Jaouad El Garouge in Arabic over lolloping karkabou and darbuka, “always moving forwards, you can live there safely/Conversation go by without insults, I live on a star, Barbès forever.”

Elsewhere, friends from Attar Bellier’s years as a recording engineer in the US lend their talents. Lee Ranaldo from Sonic Youth plays deep electric guitar drones on the opening instrumental “Awtar Al Sharq” and then on “Awal”, which inveighs against fraud and deception in politics. “Little by little,” sings El Garouge, “the money was embezzled . . . Little by little, the situation got worse.” The percussion shifts and phases; the words slide from Arabic to Berber and back; the sentiments are universal. “Is it truth, or is it a lie? I’m going insane!” The song rockets off into cacophony.

Towards the end of “Ya Malak”, Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys recites verses by the Egyptian poet and lyricist Ahmed Fouad Negm. “Who are they and who are we?” demands Biafra. “They are the Emirs and the Sultans. They are the ones with wealth and power . . . We are the impoverished and deprived. Use your mind! Who is governing who?” The music pauses before restarting with a grungy electric saz riff that builds as the words continue to provoke.

Over silvered keyboards, the New York-based Sudanese singer Alsarah develops “Hobek Tawrat” from a love song into a disguised commentary on the coup d’état which took place in her country in 2019. Whipped up with furious saz and incendiary darbuka, “Benzine” condemns the oil companies who have “cut down all the palm trees . . . burnt all the sand and looted the benzine”.

★★★★☆

‘Who Are We?’ is released by Glitterbeat