MyGen Profile GeneratorI make it difficult for experts to pigeon-hole me - that gives me a real kick. People ask me, "What kind of music do you play? Is that ethno, pop, techno, classic, modern?" To which I can only say, "Sorry, but that's not my problem. It was my problem until I composed it. Now the ball's in your court."
Let us have a closer at this strange man and musician. Hamid Baroudi grew up with music in his home country, Algeria, and aged 13, he made his stage debut. Music is far more than just entertainment in Algeria. Music can be hope against oppression, shared solidarity, spirituality, medicine, trance.
Music also accompanied Baroudi to France, but after a prolonged stay, he moved on and finally settled in Germany to study art in Kassel, home of the Dokumenta Fair. Next came six exciting years as the lead vocalist of the band Dissidenten, an important calling point in his musical career.
Following the worldwide tours and four joint albums, Hamid Baroudi left "Die Dissidenten", with whom he was a pathfinder of global pop, to pursue his solo career. He worked on City*No*Mad for two years. A pop album. Full stop. A political album. Another important point. Grooves lie at the heart of City*No*Mad, the Maghreb's rhythms amalgamated with Anglo-American rock.
Since then this "political animal" has been showered with awards. On the one hand he collected further praise and prizes for his music. Three tours for Peter Gabriel's Womad Festival Organisation took him to England, Spain and Japan, he won cultural grants in his chosen home of Kassel, and conquered the top of the European World Music Charts in August 1994. On the other hand, Baroudi also found time to perform in Bonn with Herbert Grönemeyer and Wolf Maahn in front of an audience of 200,000 at the festival against the Gulf War.
Baroudi has not only taken on the role as musical ambassador for North Africa, but also between the different religions. His performances and commitment as a modern and future-oriented thinking Muslim, is precisely the opposite of the past-fixated Fundamentalists.
In 1996 Hamid Baroudi once again emphasised that his main aim, also music-wise, was to bring together different worlds that do not seem to be compatible. On City*No*Mad it was the brilliant fusion of African and Anglo-American rock and pop music. With the Mad C.T. Mix he pushed his love of experimenting even further. Bar one of the tracks, the songs are all remixes of the previous album's contents. Drum & bass, techno, house, dub - by making use of all of these styles, befriended DJs and producers enhance Hamid Baroudi's classics such as "Caravan to Baghdad" or "Salamba". Not only in Europe, but also in Algeria, the album was enthusiastically received.
That brings us to Hamid Baroudi's second solo album. The album "5" which is an aptly chosen title. It features vocals in five languages: Arabic, English, French, Spanish and the West African language Wolof. Furthermore "5" is a mystical number, especially in the Arabian countries. Five continents, the 5 in physics, the meaning of the number in Indian culture....Have we forgotten anything?
All of the ten songs on the album were recorded in a different city. The album is as varied as the places it was recorded at. "Trance dance" ingeniously combines trance rhythms from the Maghreb with European rave beats. The Spanish elements on "Columbus" musically bridge the gap across the Straits of Gibraltar. "Mama-Tamba" intertwines West African Cora sounds with Arabian vocals. The remixes by DJ Krush and Sakuma mirror Hamid Baroudi's latest Japanese excursions
caravan 2 baghdad - live
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