Rebels return

Outlandish are back with a bang, releasing their first album after a very busy four years.

With their fusion of sound, language, roots and heritage, Outlandish are back and urging us to keep their records on play.

Exams, weddings, soundtracks for Fifa video games, gigs at Wembley and remixes of legendary Bob Marley tracks have kept the Danish hip-hop trio out of the charts for more than three years. But the wait is finally over with the release of their fourth album, Sound of a Rebel.

Outlandish is Moroccan but is made up of Danish-born Isam Bachiri; Pakistani-origin, Danish-born Waqas Ali Qadri; and Lenny Martinez, born in Honduras and of Cuban descent.

It's a Moroccan, Arab, Amazigh, Pakistani, Punjabi, Muslim and Latin American fusion which has attracted attention from Arab music greats including Egyptian singer Ehab Tawfiq and landed the band gigs supporting Santana and Busta Rhymes.

"It's been a long time coming, but it's worth it," Bachiri says with a cheeky smile.

"Home is where you feel at home," he adds. "We all had things to do and important things happening in our lives but we were always here.

"I know where I'm from and I'm comfortable enough to know home is where I'm happiest."

Formed in 1997, the members of Outlandish draw on their varied backgrounds to make music which they hope will bridge cultural, geographical and religious divides around the world.

"We're a Danish band, but we want to prove to the world we are doing good from the inside out. I get that as human beings we move - it would be sad if we stood still - but it's better if it's in the right direction."

Featuring songs in Spanish, English, Arabic, Urdu and Danish, Outlandish write about contemporary issues facing young Muslims around the world.

Their club-thumping single Kom Igen features on the Fifa '07 video game and they were the only Danish act to perform at the European MTV Awards in 2006, where they picked up an award for Best Danish Act. But it was collaborating with Arab great Ehab Tawfiq which really got the music world talking.

The second single to be released off the new album, Keep the Record on Play, features a chorus from Tawfiq's Tetraga Fiya (which means "to ask a favour of a lover").

"I heard the song years ago on holiday in Morocco - thanks to the Arabic music channels - and fell in love with it," Bachiri says.

"I always knew when the time was right I would use his song somehow."

It was about 12 months ago that his dream became a reality.

"I contacted my homey, Moez Masoud, who's a good friend of Ehab, who told him about the idea to collaborate. [Tawfiq] agreed to record the chorus again."

Armed with the new recording from Cairo, Outlandish took the vocals into the studio in Copenhagen and rewrote history.

"It's an honour to have Ehab featured on our track. A true honour."

Despite early hopes of being a footballer, Bachiri explains how Outlandish was born.

"I moved to the suburbs and met some friends and we started break dancing. We had plans to conquer the world and started talking to big companies in the hope they'd support us.

"We stayed focused but mostly just enjoyed making music. We wanted to allow some of our roots and history come through in our music."

A big hit across the Middle East, some of their most interesting tracks include Just Me and Una Palabra, which give a rare insight into European life today as seen through the eyes of ethnic minorities. The most daring song is Nothing Left to Do, boldly tackling the taboo issue of HIV among young Muslim men.

Outlandish were catapulted straight to the top of the charts across Europeabout six years ago with the hit No 1 single Aicha, first made famous by Algerian star Khaled in 1996.

But it was in March 2007 the guys really hit the headlines after the album Closer Than Veins was released in the UK by Sony BMG. The first single, Look Into My Eyes, included a rendition of Bob Marley's Redemption Song.

"Soon after this, we were on stage supporting Santana and Busta Rhymes. We have been very lucky to experience all this. They are both very cool, calm characters and we learnt a lot from them both."

It's really not hard to see why we were kept waiting this long for album number four.

"Busy doesn't start to describe our lives over the last three years," Bachiri says.

"It all comes back to our roots, to our families, to our education. But we've also never forgotten it's about the music. We may be from all over the world in origin, but we are one and the same when it comes to our music."

n The group's very first single, Pacific To Pacific, was used in connection with an Amnesty International charity event.

n Their second single, Saturday Night, was included on the soundtrack for the Danish movie Pizza King.

n Outlandish have recently helped form the umbrella organisation Music With Meaning, which aims to bring together like-minded artists in order to promote and produce inspirational and meaningful music. The motto is: "If you stand for nothing, you will fall for anything."

The albums