Cheikh Sidi Bemol is uncategorizable. Someone qualified as "Gourbi Rock" the work rendered by this group, lead by Hocine Boukella (guitar & vocals).

Cheikh Sidi Bemol's music, while deeply rooted into Algerian traditional ground, reveals a surprising freshness due to openings on Blues, Rock, Salsa or Celtic music and with exceptional musicians: Hichem Takaoute (bass), Khliff Miziallaoua (guitar) and Hervé Le Bouché (drums).

Lively, moving, full of a friendly and corrosive humour, Cheikh Sidi Bemol's songs draw a new territory in the Algerian musical landscape.

Hocine Boukella, alias Cheikh Sidi Bemol, alias Elho, trained as a biologist and is a self-taught musician and cartoonist. Right from the '80s while a student in Algiers, he sketched with a corrosive humour Algerian society. He brought his first comic book out, called "Le Crieur" (The Crier) upon the universe of musicians in Algiers.
This comic book was banned for "obscenity" and the plates were seized.

In 1985, he arrived in Paris to attend a population genetics study, but he soon gave up his scientific career to dedicate himself to both of his passions: drawing and music.

He founded the group Sidi Bemol, which appears mostly in the area around Paris, published three drawing books, contributed to "Salama" and "Pour!" reviews, exhibited in several festivals (Angouleme, Saint-Just-Le Martel,..), and collaborated as graphic designer, lyric writer, or musician on various albums (Youcef, Gnawa Diffusion, Orchestre National de Barbes, Djamel Laroussi, Takfarinas, ..)

In 1998, he recorded his first album Cheikh Sidi Bemol. He founded the collective l'Usine and took part in founding the groups Thalweg (celto-berbere) and Zalamite (berberian groove).

His drawings and songs reveal a complex but rich personality, deeply rooted in his dual cultures, and torn between his haunting memories of Algeria and the confounding, everyday life of an exile. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.