U-Cef is a Moroccan producer, living in London, who knows his hard-step from his handbag, his Akai from his Ahwash and his Metalheadz from his metal castanets. His name is Mulay Youssef Adel. Known as “The Moroccan Digitizer”, U-Cef was born and raised in Rabat before moving to New York, where from 1990 he lived as a struggling musician, holding down day jobs whilst grabbing every opportunity to play and listen to music. U-cef quickly developed a love for hip hop, funky urban jazz and all sorts of polyglot metropolitan mixtures. In 1994 U-cef moved to London where he got himself a home studio together in his west London flat and learned to combine western rock and electronic music with the traditional sounds of his homeland.
U-Cef released his first album Halalium (Appartment 22) in 2000. It, sounds like Morocco, with the trance-inducing simplicity of the Ney and Darbuka; it sounds like London too, with the most cutting-edge drums and bass ever witnessed. U-CEF released his second, long awaited album Halalwood in 2008. His track “Stick”, off “Halalwood”, also reflects that fusion, balancing Eastern and Western influences. The song features Damon Albarn (Blur, Gorillaz), who provides sparse, chanting vocals and a vaguely familiar harmonica riff.
"HALALWOOD" Album Credits
Includes collaborations with Damon Albarn, Justin Adams, Natasha Atlas, Steve Hillage, Rachid Taha, uk apache, and many more... out now on Crammed discs.
"U-Cef's potential is as limitless as the Sahara"—Chris Nickson.
"One of the most ambitious and best-executed fusions of ethnic traditionalism and urban futurism I've ever heard"—Chicago Reader.
"U-Cef is a drummer and a perfect creator of distant voices and magnetic sounds"—Il Manifesto.
"U-Cef melts technological dance rhythms and big beats with the strength of the trance elements in the halal rhythms from Morocco"—World Music.
"Here comes the world music of the new millennium"—Oor.
"He represents what the term world music really means today more than anyone else"—L'humanité.
"The dance floor is a natural habitat for U-Cef"—Time Out.
"U-Cef hasn't just combined these elements to jump on the world music bandwagon, he's done it to bring the honoured tradition of Arabic music into the 21st century. Needless to say, he does it with finesse"—DJ Magazine.
"A lesson in subtlety for all worldbeat remixers"—BFM.
