Prepare to dance with Tarika, the award-winning roots band from Madagascar! Their new Xenophile release, D (XENO4053), is an irresistable tribute to a golden age of dance music on this Indian Ocean island named after the Malagasy word for dance ("dihy," pronounced "d"), the album is a sparkling set of acoustic-flavored island rhythms.

Tarika is at the forefront of Madagascar’s healthy music scene of modern groups rooted in traditional music. Led by the dynamic singer and songwriter Hanitra (pronounced "Anch") Rasoanaivo and her sister Noro, the band is known for its fabulous harmonies, instrumental virtuosity, and live performances filled with driving percussion and spirited dancing. Their 1997 release Son Egal (XENO4042), called "one of the global pop revelations of recent years" by the Boston Phoenix, spent an uprecedented eight weeks at number 1 on the CMJ world music radio chart, and won Best Contemporary World Music album from the Association for Independent Music (AFIM) in the United States.

With their third release, D, Tarika dips into a treasurelode of Madagascar grooves from the 1970s for inspiration. Each of the country’s 18 tribes has its own special dances, and in the ’70s and early ’80s a golden age of hits flourished, with pioneering electric bands updating the unique island rhythms like salegy, watcha watcha, tsapika, sega and sigaoma. Today, you can only occasionally find those old 45s in the street markets, scratched to death, and nearly all the record players stopped working long ago.

Tarika wanted to get some of those old favorites back into circulation. Every Malagasy still remembers the catchy hit songs like Cocorico, Matata and Samy Mandeha Samy Mitady which the band have revived on D, alongside lesser-known nuggets from a cassette industry surge in the early ’90s. Tarika has also written a bunch of new songs that fit hand-in-glove with the classics, like the sunny opening track Retany.

With renowned world-music producer Hijaz Mustapha at the knobs, D is a sizzler from one of world music’s most exuberant bands.


Artists: Hanitra (Rasoanaivo Hanitrarivo), Noro (Rharimalala Tina Norosoa), Donné (Randriamanantena Dieudonné), Ny Ony (Rasolomahatratra Ny Ony Henintsoa Andriamparany), Solo (Randrianasolomalala Victor)