Toukadime Radio
A few years back, Bashir and Kamir (alias Krimau), two Rouen-based DJs, passionate record collectors and sons of North African immigrants themselves, launched their ongoing quest to rediscover their own musical heritage.
They began digging for records of Maghreb origin, involving regular trips to Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, in an attempt to reappropriate the North African diaspora’s vintage sounds from the 1950s to the 1970s and in turn, make this music accessible to a wider audience.
Via their monthly vinyl-only Toukadime radio show on Radio HDR (every first Thursday of the month at 8pm CET), Bashir and Krimau continue to present their latest finds, adding invaluable bits of information on the pieces played as they proceed.
The word “Toukadime” by the way means “to present”. As such, in an attempt to also present this music to those, who may no longer have access to it, every now and then they play an afternoon set at Belleville’s Café Social, before an elderly migrant audience:
“It’s hard to describe those moments. You can play a festival in front of 10,000 people, but you will never experience the same emotions as you will with those 40 something people. They will cry. They will laugh and they will dance. Sometimes all at once. And if they don’t like the record you are spinning, they’ll let you know. They’ll complain, if you’re not playing enough Berber music or tunes from Oran or Sétif”, claims Bashir. (via www.africulture.com)
You can re-listen to all of Toukadime’s radio shows on Soundcloud.
// image via Facebook
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