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"Betty" from Take It and Drive (Rasa)
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"Sel" from Take It and Drive (Rasa)
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Take It and Drive (Rasa)
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CD Review

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SMADJ
"Take It and Drive" - Rasa Music

While not as immediately striking as his import-only 1999 album, "Equilibrise," there is still much to recommend the latest outing by Tunisian-born, Paris-based Smadj (real name: Jean-Pierre Smadji). A master of both the lute-like Middle Eastern oud and the laptop computer, he is one of the few dance floor-savvy electronica artists who improvises freely and is steeped in age-old traditions. Even more rare, he avoids diluting his centuries-old musical sources for a faux-cosmopolitan audience.

This gently captivating 12-song album also features Malian vocal great Rokia Traore, the Bushmen of the Kalahari, and Indian singer-guitarist Amit Chatterjee. The exotic if understated synthesis that results might qualify as the best chill-out album of the year so far, except that Smadj's multifarious work is so much richer and more ambitious than any other chill-out album that comes to mind.

 04/20/06 >> go there
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