Ketoret are out of Israel and produce a sludge-laden doom. This release has only one track, but it’s a slow, lava-like 10 minutes of heavy rock.
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From Mulatu Astatke’s own Bandcamp site: “Formed in 2012 on the south side of Tel Aviv, the 12 member Hoodna Orchestra is a collective of musicians and composers who initially bonded over a shared love of Afrobeat. They have gone on to incorporate psychedelic rock, hard funk and soul, jazz, and East African music into their sought after releases, winning praise and airplay from the likes of Iggy Pop and Huey Morgan on BBC Radio 6 Music. The collective draws together a huge array of musical talents such as guitarist Ilan Smilan and organist Eitan Drabkin of Sababa 5 fame,…
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Agnivolok and Necromishka are two Israeli neofolk bands who remind me not only of obvious modern bands like Death in June, but have a sound similar to the legendary American ur-neofolk band Changes. Stunning, mellow, folksy and dark.
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Here we have Hull of Light, an “…international collective of cosmic cowboys and cowgirls with members from Megason, Suffering Hour, Zeresh (our beloved friends), Underground Spiritual Game & Sleepwalker [夢遊病者].” The music was absolutely not what I was expecting, as a few of these come from a raw, powerful black metal background. Not this EP. This sounds like it would have fit with early 1980s post-punk. There is an aggression, a lo-fi quality to it that screams to be noticed. I thoroughly enjoyed having my ears blasted by this.
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Three brilliant musicians, Ronit Bergman, Dorian Jovanović and Filip Mitrov, combine to make heavy neo-psychedelic music with a gritty edge to it. A peach of a release.
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Once a legend in old Soviet free jazz and improv circles, it’s wonderful to hear that Slava Ganelin is still making solid music with a new trio based in Israel.
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Words fail to describe the beauty of this release, even if it is an acidic beauty. Harae are a band run by beloved friends, and both innovative musicians in their own right. Combined, however, they have made magic, especially if you like a harsh wall of noise cascading over you like molten steel in an industrial factory. The vocals are frightening, which works seamlessly with the music. It’s a harsh but rewarding listen. I cannot wait to hear more from them! For those of you who prefer a hard copy of the release, you can order a mini-CDR edition from…
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I have never heard of Oleg Karpachev, a Israeli soundtrack composer, but thanks to the fine folks at the legendary Cold Spring Records, I can spend this day blown away by this soundtrack which melds together Hans Zimmer and In Slaughter Natives in some fashion. From the label’s Bandcamp site: “Released for the first time on any format, we proudly present the soundtrack to the 2020 sci-fi horror film ‘Sputnik’ (directed by Egor Abramenko). The bleak and hauntingly atmospheric film is accompanied by an impressively heavy soundtrack from Oleg Karpachev, who uses bombastic percussion, stirring strings, and otherworldly synths to…
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Krivitsky is/are a project out of Israel that meld funk together with a fusion vibe stamped with a quasi-Soviet aesthetic.
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Thanks to a translation of the Polish on the release’s Bandcamp site, this project was originally prepared as a special project of the 5th Tzadik Poznań Festival. It was also performed there for the first time. In the beautiful walls of the Renaissance Górka Palace, where one of the five stages of the festival was located, a quartet composed of important figures of contemporary improvised music presented an original interpretation of Yemenite music. From the Bandcamp site: “Raphael Rogiński, one of the originators of the project, talks about this tradition: “This culture had a huge impact on modern Israel. Contrary…