September 23, 2009 -- When Mehdi Haddab plugs his Arabic lute, known as an oud, into a twin stack of Marshall amps Friday night at Palác Akropolis, he will be tapping not only his North African musical heritage but also the early roots of American rock 'n' roll. It's a little-known fact that, back in the early 1960s, while teenagers were twisting away to Dick Dale (aka Richard Monsour) hits like "Ghost Riders in the Sky," "Let's Go Trippin" and "Miserloum," the king of surf guitar was using a string-plucking technique borrowed from his Lebanese oud-playing uncle. And the reverberations of the ancient lute echoed well beyond California surfing dreams. In the late '60s in New York City, the oud inspired work by bassist/producer Felix Pappalardi, well-known for helping Cream, Mountain and Devil's Anvil create their timeless, proto-metal LPs.

With family origins in the Algerian region of Kabylie, long-known for its cultural activism, musical literacy and adherence to the native Berber language, Haddab has a keen grasp of historical facts, musical and otherwise. Asked during a phone interview with The Prague Post about the surf guitar stomps, Haddab acknowledged Dale's contribution and noted that Speed Caravan's answer to Dale is their remake of the '50s rock 'n' roll hit "Daddy Lolo" by Ganim's Asia Minors - which predated any surf tremolo by at least three years. Despite Haddab and Speed Caravan's deep roots in both Mediterranean and American rock, their debut album, 2009's Kalashnik Love (on the Newbled label), is definitely a post-funk, post-punk, post-metal 21st-century product. A long list of guests helped the band with their urgent studio-as-instrument debut, including French-Algerian mandolute player Rachid Taha and Asian Dub Foundation's Spex MC.

Speaking of the album's wide reach, Haddab says, "Although I like live-in-the-studio albums, I also like 'produced' albums. Look at the Beatles when they did Sergeant Pepper - they did not intend to play that record live, and that studio work changed a lot of things in the music. So, along with our producer David Husser, we spent three years making this CD, not continuously working, as we have also been touring, but carefully recording one step at a time." Studio finesse is not the only impulse Speed Caravan takes from the United Kingdom. "When I was in Algeria in the '80s, I was talking with a friend who was the first to show me oriental scales on the guitar," Haddab recalled. "He was telling me that, during the '70s, a lot of metal musicians like Jimmy Page and especially Ritchie Blackmore worked with these scales."

Indeed, Led Zepplin's "Kashmir" from the Physical Graffiti album is a popular reference for oriental rock guitar musical imagery. But those who have heard Blackmore's riffing on tracks like Rainbow's "Stargazer" immediately understand why, on the Arab rock 'n' roll street, the rumor persists that Blackmore must have studied with an Egyptian oud master. "For us, that was very funny," says Haddab, "because we in Algeria were taking our inspiration from an Englishman." Besides the global array of musical currency and tradition streaming through Speed Caravan's sound, a good part of their appeal remains in how Haddab keeps the sultry bass qualities of the oud alive while also delivering the instrument's ringing lead lines through scorching sculpted effects. Helping this fury onstage is the band's touring lineup, whose combined background includes years of jazz, techno/industrial and Al-Andalusian music.

Since 2006, from London to Seville, European concertgoers have been reveling in Speed Caravan's heady sound. Still, it wasn't until earlier this year that the band took on the ultimate road test with a tour of the Middle East. Naturally, it's a report straight out of Beirut that best verifies what they're capable of onstage. A review in Lebanon's Daily Star in April characterized Speed Caravan as an "electrified, globalized" live act with a skill for "bringing the audience out of their seats like musicians at a Cairo wedding."

Speed Caravan

When: Friday, September 25, at 7:30
Where: Palác Akropolis
Tickets: 270-350 Kč,
Available through Ticketpro, Ticketportal and at the venue