After the political and historical intensity of the Son Egal project, the new album D is a nice contrast; a bright, upbeat, sizzling celebration of Madagascar's myriad dance styles where the Malayo-Polynesian roots mix up with influences from their big neighbour Africa. The title stands for Dihy, the Malagasy word for Dance - which you pronounce just like the English say the letter D.

Every one of the 18 tribes of Madagascar has their own special dances, and back in the 1970s and early '80s there was a golden age of local hits made by pioneering electric bands updating those unique island rhythms like salegy, watcha watcha, tsapika, sega and sigaoma. Now you can only occasionally find those old 45s in the street markets, scratched to death, and nearly all the record players stopped working long ago. But every Malagasy still remembers catchy songs like Samy Mandeha Samy Mitady, Matata and Cocorico.

Tarika's particular intention with D was to salute that era and put some of those old favourites back into circulation, re-interpreted in their inimitable new roots way. They also picked a few great but less well-known songs like Tatan'i Bina and Bonne Année that have emerged since a local cassette industry has grown up in the '90s, and have written a whole new bunch of their own that fit hand-in-glove with the classics. Some of those like the opening Retany, the gorgeous island pop of Raitra and the celebrational Fety are absolutely guaranteed to be smash hits back home! True to their past form, this is another Tarika album full of remarkable and accessible variety.

Tarika Home Page
D
Son Egal
A Complete Madagascar CD-ography
fRoots Home Page
info@tarika.nu

Track list

Buy the album at Weekend Beatnik