Touch El Arab was a Swiss band from Basle that lasted only for a couple of EPs and one album. Their song 'Muhammar', originally released as a B-side in 1987, reached number 4 in the Swiss charts and was also very successful in Italy and France. They used arabic samples combined with melodic italo-type synth-pop and humourous lyrics.
Before Touch El Arab they recorded under the name Billy Bordelli and got into problems because they played nude on some gigs.
Later Philippe Alioth recorded under the name Spartak where he made more Industrial sound, after that he got more techno/house related with Alexander Friedrich as Alioth & Friedrich.
Christoph Müller moved to Paris where he formed Gotan Project with Philippe C. Solal.

http://www.discogs.com/artist/Touch+El+Arab Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.