LES BOUKAKES

LES BOUKAKES is made up of 7 guys : Bachir, the voice of the band. Then come Thierry, the Corsican guitarist, Steph on keybords, Bubulle, bass player from the north, Imed, Tunisian derboukist and Pascal, drummer from the south.The whole sound system is supervised by the Italian technician of the team, Massimo.

Their name itself is a reply to some of the less than friendly comments they received in their time on the streets, Boukake being a phonetic mixture of two typical racist insults. But for them, that did not have anything of degrading, because the Boukake was born during the long trip of exile, a rich child of the world and its prohibited loves. Without making ostensible political comments in their songs, this deliberate attitude says something for their resistance to bias and ignorance generally.
After a few years, from the street to bars, from small concerts to festivals, they finally met their audience, sharing the stages with famous bands like Manu Dibango, Cheb Mami, Taraf De Haïdouks, Cheikha Rimitti, Rachid Taha and others...
In 2001, they recorded the album "Makach Mouch'kil" (No Problem). That first work got a great reception from the media. The lyrics with oriental melodies harmoniously swing on musics either Rock, Groove, Electronic, Raï or Gnawa.

In 2004 their music (raï n'rock) was spotted: They won professional prizes (FAIR, Découvertes Printemps de Bourges..) and the European TV channel ARTE chose to follow their development for documentaries.
They celebrated the end of the year with the release of a brand new album Bledi. The Raï and Rock Music of that album proves that the combination of Orient and Occident is possible and it can be Happy !

Years 2005-2007 were dedicated to the audience, so the band was on tour with more than 150 concerts in 18 different countries - Notice their participation at the Womex 2005, Festival International of Jazz in Montréal, Paléo Festival, Sziget Festival, Amsterdam Roots, Sakifo Festival, Timitar Festival Morocco etc…

In 2007, they have been nominated for The BBC Awards For World music. Now, they are back to studios, working to a new creation with Philippe Eidel and Franck redlich,the new album will be released soon!