There are so many recordings by the late Mohamed Rouicha (1950-2012) - they all sound pretty similar, and they're all pretty great - well recorded, solid performances, killer grooves, entrancing lotar plucking, soulful baritone singing from Rouicha in call/response with the piercing soprano voices of the backup singers, all animated by the incessant buzzy time-keeping of the bendir frame drums.
I've identified at least 65 cassette releases by Rouicha on the Tichkaphone label. These were preceded by some 7" vinyl releases on Koutoubiaphone (which later became Tichkaphone) and on Bouissiphone, and followed by some cassette/CD releases on the MasterOne label in the last decade of his life, including his famous late-career hit "Inas Inas".
Many of the Tichkaphone albums can be found on YouTube, but the digital transfers are often thin-sounding and sometimes corrupted. This cassette rip comes to us from Peter Doolan (blogmaster at มนต์รักเพลงไทย), and it's a great improvement over what you can hear elsewhere online.
For those who want to dig into some of the meanings of Rouicha's songs, here's a recent article in English:
- Mounia Mnouer. The Amazigh Musical Style of Rouicha: Transcending Linguistic and Cultural Boundaries. Review of Middle East Studies. 2022, 56(2):264-276.
There's not much scholarly or critical writing on Rouicha - I hope more will appear!
Rouicha Mohamed رويشة محمد
Tichkaphone cassette TCK 1157 تشكافون
A1 Ana Noussik أنا نوصيك
A2 La Smaha Lli Kan Sbab لاسماحة اللي كان سباب
B1 Hatta Line حتى لين
B2 Lahbiba Latgouli Lawah لحبيبة لا تڭولي لواه
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