Les Boukakes is made up of 7 musicians: Bachir, the voice of the band; Corsican guitarist, Thierry; Steph’ on keyboards, known as the Occitan; Bubulle, a bass player from the north; Imed, a Tunisian darbuka player; and Pascal, drummer from the south. The whole sound system is supervised by the Italian technician of the team, Massimo.
Exile gave birth to the boukake. Their name itself is a reply to some of the less than friendly comments they received in their time on the streets. Boukake being a phonetic mixture of two typical racist insults. But for them, that did not have anything degrading, because the Boukake was born during the long trip of exile, a rich child of the World and its prohibited loves. Without making ostensible political comments in their songs this deliberate attitude says something for their resistance to bias and ignorance generally.
After having mixed their origins together, they left to play music on stage – 300 concerts through France, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, Romany, Sweden etc..- had an aperitif and went to record the album of their dreams Makach Mouch’ kil (no problem).
The lyrics are mixed with Middle Eastern melodies, rock, groove, electronica, Rai, Gnawa and Arab-Andalusian.
In 2004 the group won many prizes (FAIR, D’couvertes Printemps de Bourges, Strictly Mundial..).
Discography
Makach Mouch’kil (Melodie, 2001)
Bledi (2005)
Marra (2008)
Punky Halal (2012)
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.
