Various Artists - Radio Algeria / Various (CD)

All Music Guide

An impressive collection of recordings taken from Algerian radio airwaves (including shortwave, no less). The end result is probably more properly termed a collage than a collection, as bits and pieces are intermingled with station identifications and ads (and was that Isaac Hayes?) throughout to create the impression of casual stationflipping while driving through the country. There is modern dance music here, some rai, some guesba (prerai), and a handful of ethnic forms (from the Tuaregs, as well as some much more rare Khabyle music, though not necessarily on the same level as Takfarinas). The liner notes are woefully bare, but the music is overall quite good. The music ranges from traditional to modern, with some bits of fusion in between. It's an album one can become enveloped in without knowledge of the context or styles. An audioscape, as it were, in the vein of Seeger's vision of a sound environment. A fine addition to the collection of those already in the know on Algerian forms, but also a nice starting point for a scavengerhunt method of discovery

- Adam Greenberg, All Music Guide