In “Rokia”, a young villager falls in love with his neighbour, and her mother, Rokia, opposes the relationship. Rabie Houti, a violinist and singer from Oran in Algeria who has lived in Montpellier since 2014, tells the story with Gasba Électrique, who combine Maghrebi flute with electronic textures. The track brings together his Arabo-Andalusian violin, electronic beats and rock guitars, and builds gradually into a trance. Trance is the band’s own word for its live shows too, which have taken them from Montpellier to Canada, Algeria and Kazakhstan.

Houti’s own road to those stages started in Oran, where his father loved Arabo-Andalusian music and his older sister Khedija taught him his first notes on a mandolin. Around the age of eight he played his first concert, on violin, with the junior orchestra of the Nassim El Andalous school at Oran’s opera house. These days he leads the Rabie Houti Band, active since 2017, who set Maghrebi melodies over funk and rock grooves and place themselves in “Sono Mondiale”, the movement the late Rachid Taha championed.

Joudour, their second album, takes its title from the Arabic word for roots, and the band marked its release with a free show at Rockstore in Montpellier on 3 October. It follows Tahtaha from 2019, which Houti describes as a test from a time when the band was still searching; with Joudour, he says, they found their signature. The new album leans further into rock and electronics, and every track is an original composition.

You can stream “Rokia” and Joudour HERE.