If you're looking to be transported back to the best of 1970s Paris, have I ever got the impending reissue for you. As the story goes, Freh Khodja was born in 1949 in Sidi Bel Abbès, Algeria. Growing up in the "Little Paris" of North Africa, he developed an early passion for music, studying saxophone and theory, before eventually travelling across the Mediterranean Sea to France in 1968, where he continued his musical training at the École Normale de Musique in Paris. Of course, alongside his musical education, he experienced the unsettling realities of immigrant life in France.

In the city of light, Freh joined Les Flammes, a band made up of musicians from across the African diaspora, most notably Cape Verde. When it came time to record "Ken Andi Habib" In 1975, Les Flammes served as Freh's backing band, and the vocal ensemble El Salem supported him on BVs. Over eight strident numbers that feel equally legible on a club dancefloor or in a lounge bar, the album sees Freh and his collaborators intermingling North African melodies with then-contemporary jazz and funk, Latin-Caribbean influences and notes and rhythm cribbed from the Cape Verde folkloric musical form Coladeira. In the process, "Ken Andi Habib" reflects the diverse musical environment of the city at the time.

Opening with the infectious interlocking rhythms of 'Habitek', "Ken Andi Habib" explodes into a flurry of lush horns on the strutting titular track, before spinning off on an uptempo Western soundtrack tilt with 'Ghariti Bya' and getting bouyant, joyful and Verdean via 'Ya Coladera'. Freh has a compelling and commanding voice, which is well supported by El Salem's BVs and Les Flammes's lush orchestration. Like many songs on the record, 'Aich Sar Bina Koulili' feels loaded with sampling gold and good times grooves. 'Kalbou Ahzine' is effortlessly regal chanson. 'Hawa' feels an undeniable anthem for those moments at a community get-together when everyone wants to dance in a circle and clap along. Fittingly, the LP's final track 'Ani Jit El Youm' sounds like a glorious confluence between Freh's French North African musical sensibilities and the late 20th century psychedelic pop that flowed freely throughout California. And who knows, for some of the audience members dancing at Les Flammes live shows, perhaps another migration across the Atlantic was on the horizon at the time as well.

Mainly distributed within North African immigrant communities in France and Algeria, "Ken Andi Habib" eventually became consigned to the dusty record store bins of history, before making a comeback as a source of Arabic rare grooves and deep cuts amongst diligent 21st-century collector DJs. On 4 July, WEWANTSOUNDS will be bringing the album back into the conversation via a remastered LP reissue accompanied by illuminating liner notes from North African music specialist Rabah Mezouane, who locates Freh's work within the wider context of musical innovation by North African artists in France during the lacuna years.

"Ken Andi Habib" is due for release through WEWANTSOUNDS in vinyl and digital formats on 4 July (Pre-order here)