Here/Now: 3abdelkader finds Algeria in techno

For Abdelkader, electronic music seemed a natural extension of the era in which he grew up. Born in 1989, he was a teenager when cybercafés mushroomed across Algiers in the wake of the internet revolution.

Gaming consoles and early mobile phones also signalled the advent of the digital age. It was on his PlayStation 1 that he encountered his first music program: Music 2000. “I had the impression that I was listening to music from the future, full of electronic sounds,” he said. A fan of hip-hop music at the time, including the nascent Algerian rap scene, he and a childhood friend recorded their first beats on cassette tapes.

At the age of 13, he saw a TV report on teknivals, the underground techno events that emerged across Europe. He discovered sound systems and was fascinated by the subculture’s free spirit.

“I thought to myself: I want to listen to this sound, and I want to make techno music,” he said.

Years later, Abdelkader would go on to perform at clubs, beach parties and underground raves across Algeria. Today, he is regularly booked in Algiers, Oran and other cities around the country.

Abdelkader’s immediate environment proved fertile ground for his growing interest in electronic music. He grew up in Telemly, a neighbourhood in central Algiers, with siblings and parents whose cultural interests ranged from singing, painting and assemblage to acrobatics and sewing. Several DJs also lived in the same building. The first time he saw a vinyl deck was at a neighbour’s apartment.

“Telemly was full of artists, and that universe influenced us deeply,” he explained.

He later studied computing before specialising in sound engineering.

In 2009, Abdelkader played in front of a crowd for the first time at the Santa Cruz chapel overlooking Oran. A friend had booked him as a surprise for participants taking part in a trek from the city to the religious sanctuary. The event also featured Sidahmed, a pioneer of Oran’s underground scene.

Now part of a flourishing wave of electronic music in Algeria, Abdelkader remains attached to the values that first drew him to underground culture.

“The underground spirit was also inspired by Chaabi music artists, by their modesty and sincerity,” he said.

While techno is relatively recent in Algeria, Abdelkader sees roots of the genre in the electronic textures of 1970s composer Ahmed Malek and 1980s Raï producer Rachid Baba Ahmed. Those influences continue to shape his work today.

Under the name AKM, he remixes Algerian songs with a touch of house music. His other alias, 3abdelkader, is reserved for productions that are more “techno, industrial, abstract, dark and mature,” as he put it, while still drawing on the rich and diverse sounds of Algerian tradition.

This is evident in his track Lila, an encounter between techno and Gnawa music, the North African genre in which trance-inducing repetitive rhythms and patterns play a central role.

“I didn’t force the fusion; it came naturally,” Abdelkader said. “This style was not invented by techno. It has always existed. Techno only produced it using electronic tools.”

For Abdelkader, local sounds are about more than musical experimentation.

“It’s a way of asserting our culture and our Darja, especially for a generation that has gone through an identity crisis, with globalisation having flattened many local traditions,” he said.

The same philosophy also informs his work beyond the DJ booth. He co-founded the Algerian Techno Movement (ATM), a project that aims to promote the genre by building infrastructure and bringing enthusiasts together.

“Our mission is to support the local scene, to foreground Algerian artists and to build a musical and visual culture inspired by our own identity,” Abdelkader said.

He emphasised that the movement is a collective effort, shaped by the work and contributions of both past and present members.

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Among the artists who inspire him are Moh Techno, one of the first DJs to play the genre in Algeria in the 1990s, as well as Aphex Twin, Oscar Mulero, Robert Hood and, above all, Jeff Mills.

He also listens to downtempo, trip-hop and 1990s Algerian music, but tends to avoid anything shaped primarily for mass consumption.

Though he has performed abroad, including in France, his focus remains firmly local. He points to the particularity of the Algerian scene, which developed organically as a grassroots movement rather than through tourism or media exposure.

“Musically, we try to distinguish ourselves with local sounds, without seeking validation from abroad,” he concluded.