Hamid Baroudi grew up with music in Algeria and took to the stage at the early age of 15. In Algeria, music is more than mere entertainment, it can represent hope in the face of oppression, a feeling of solidarity, spirituality, trance, even medicine. Music accompanied Hamid to France, where, after a long stay, he hitched further and landed in Germany, studying art in Kassel, home of the Pocumenta exhibition. There followed six exciting years as front-man of world beat band Dissidenten, an important step in his musical career.
After touring worldwide and the release of 4 albums, Hamid Baroudi left Dissidenten with whom he’d become the vanguard of Global pop, and dedicated himself to his own solo career. He worked for 2 years on “City” No* Mad”. Groove forms the focal point of “City* No* Mad”, the rhythms of Maghreb coupled with Anglo-American rock.
Musical honors and accolades accumulated thenceforth around Baroudi, the “political animal”. He collected praise and prizes for his musical work; three tours for Peter Gabriel’s WOMAD festival organization took him to England, Spain and Japan. He won the “Award for Culture” in his chosen home town of Kassel and topped the European World Music charts in August 1994. Besides all this, he appeared in Bonn in front of 200.000 at an Anti-Gulf-War festival. His performances and engagement as a forward-thinking “child of Islam” achieve a complete opposite to the uncompromising fundamentalism of some of his brethren.
1996 seemed only to underline the fact that Hamid Baroudi’s goal was to bring together cultural worlds that seem to the outsider unalignable. City No Mad successfully fused African music and Anglo-American rock and pop. With the Mad C.T. Mix, Hamid went all experimental. Except for one song. His previous album was completely remixed. Drum & & Bass, Techno, House and Dub; they were all “in there.”
Hamid’s second solo album 5 contains singing in 5 different languages: Arabic, English, French, Spanish and the West African tongue of Wolof. Apart from that, the number 5 itself had well-known mystical properties, especially among the Arabs. In North Africa it’s a fact that the “Hand of Fatima” is simply called 5. Add to this the 5 continents, the 5 senses and the “5 Pillars of lslam.”
Discography;
City No Mad (Vielklang, 1995)
Salama (Vielklang, 1995)
Five (1997)
Sidi (Vielklang 03231-2, 2001)
Mad C.T. Mix (Barraka, 2003)
TamTam a Tam (2012)
Website: www.hamidbaroudi.com
Author: Angel Romero
Angel Romero y Ruiz has dedicated his life to musical exploration. His efforts included the creation of two online portals, worldmusiccentral.org and musicasdelmundo.com. In addition, Angel is the co-founder of the Transglobal World Music Chart, a panel of world music DJs and writers that celebrates global sounds. Furthermore, he delved into the record business, producing world music studio albums and compilations. His works have appeared on Alula Records, Ellipsis Arts, Indígena Records and Music of the World.
