“Yal Bahja Yalbahya” (1974) – Dahmane El Harrachi * LP: 74 * Label: Les Artistes Arabes Associés
An album like Dahmane El Harrachi’s 74 is a godsend in that it verifies, more or less, the year of release. The balmy sea of Middle Eastern music is notoriously undocumented, even in regard to titans like Algeria’s king of chaabi (whose birth name is Amrani Abderrahmane). A greater portion of El Harrachi’s most well-known recorded output, such as the immigration anthem “Yah Rayah,” appears to come from the ’70s, when festival appearances gave him a career resurgence at home after spending several decades in France. The title of this track refers to “joy,” but after listening, you wouldn’t need a dictionary to know that.