LILI BONICHE

BONICHE DUB II

  1/  Eli Mektoub Version                        (Boniche)                     9.19
  2/  Le Tango Dub                               (Boniche)                     4.28  
  3/  Elle Est Partie Dub                        (Boniche)                     4.19  
  4/  Amir Leghram Version                       (Traditional)                 7.07  
  5/  Dis Moi Dis Moi Version                    (Boniche)                     6.22  
  6/  N'Oublie Jamais Tes Parents Dub            (Boniche)                     7.18  

          Mix produced by Bill Laswell and Jean Touitou
          Original tracks produced by Jean Touitou
          Coordination: Judith Sraer and Christopher Niquet
          Mastered by Michael Fossenkemper at Turtle Tone, New York
Lili Boniche: vocals, guitar; Manu Katche: shaker (1), maracas (3), drums (3,6); Gregoire Garrigues: contrabass (1,6), guitar (3); Raul Enrique Hernandez Alvarez: percussion (1); Mami Chan: piano (1), clavier (6); Patrice Renson: drums (2,4,5); Jean-Pierre Smadja: oud (2,4,5); Matthieu Chedid: guitar (2,4,5), bass (2,4,5), claviers (2,4,5); Jean Baptiste Mondino: guitar (3); Ernie Brooks: bass (3); Didier Leglise: clavier (6).

          2004 - A.P.C. (France), APC 024 (CD)

REVIEWS :

Accusations of beating a dead horse - or in this case an elderly, yet vital, Jewish-Algerian singer/guitarist/composer - might arise with the arrival APC's second dub treatment of Lili Boniche's music. But on the other hand, perhaps we ought instead to praise a label and its visionary proprietor - Parisian fashion designer Jean Touitou - for giving this one-of-a-kind artist constant exposure.

Toutiou and Bill Laswell dubbed Boniche's first APC album a few years back to fine effect, even if the sound could be characterized as a little thin for dub or for a record with Bill Laswell playing bass. This time they repeat the feat and discombobulate his "crossover" album from a little more than a year ago, Oeuvres r?ntes, where Boniche was joined by, among others, APC regulars like Gregoire Garrigues, Mami Chan and Jean-Baptiste Mondino, and the brilliant French-Tunisian oudist Jean-Pierre Smajda (who releases his own electronics-infected solo work as simply Smadj).

The results are satisfying enough, and "N'Oublie Jamais tes Parents Dub", with heavy bass and the keyboards of Chan and Didier Leglise rising in and out of the mix - as does Boniche's charming, octogenarian warble - might just be the best version on either of the dub remix albums.

Stephen Fruitman (courtesy of the Sonomu website)