Khaled's new album, Liberté, could not be more aptly named. Casting off the shackles of record company formatting, the Rai king has freed that extraordinary voice which has lain imprisoned beneath layers of synthesisers for far too long. Liberté, recorded live in the studio with producer Martin Meissonnier, reveals the full extent of Khaled's incredible vocals - vocals we had all but forgotten despite (or perhaps because of) the singer's prolific string of hits to date!

Khaled digs deep into the past on his new album, bringing a handful of his old songs to light including the wonderful Raïkoum. But the outstanding feature of this new album is the reinstatement of the "intro", a scene-setting prelude on which the singer's carefully modulated voice extrapolates on the theme of each song. The final track, Ya Mimoun, boasts a brilliant intro lasting a full minute long.

A range of instruments including accordion, guembri, ney flute and the guellal, a touch of synthesiser and soaring Egyptian strings give Khaled's new album a strong acoustic feel. And certain arrangements even hark back to early '80s "novo Rai" (a nod, perhaps, to Kutché, the first international album Khaled recorded with his old friend Meissonnier).

Khaled takes musical liberties on this new album, too, straying beyond Rai and the city of Oran and voyaging towards Béchar and the hypnotic trance rhythms of the south. The singer tries his hand at diwan (traditional Algerian Gnawa music boosted by Meissonnier's electronic bass) and creates his own fusion sound, mixing African Rai with Middle Eastern strings. This is Khaled at his best in years!