Recommend me some Israeli music/music in hebrew

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Even my Israeli girlfriend says there isn't much worth listening to (though she hasn't lived there for three or four years).

The point is, I want to practice my Hebrew with something listenable. I have an Arik Einstein "Best of" CD, but I can't get past the late 80s/early 90s sounding b-level production. It all sounds like "This producer is really good ... for Israel."

Hurting (Hurting), Saturday, 7 May 2005 18:46 (8 years ago) Permalink

What's the name of that Israeli goth-metal band?

Jordan (Jordan), Saturday, 7 May 2005 19:38 (8 years ago) Permalink

I remember, it's Orphaned Land!

Jordan (Jordan), Saturday, 7 May 2005 19:39 (8 years ago) Permalink

there's a bunch of hebrew language hiphop - a friend of mine has at least some of the hits, i'll ask him for some names.

jermaine (jnoble), Saturday, 7 May 2005 19:59 (8 years ago) Permalink

Orphaned Land isn't particularly gothic anymore. Pretty balls to the wall and flashy nowadays.

James Slone (Freon Trotsky), Saturday, 7 May 2005 20:05 (8 years ago) Permalink

Well, Ofra Haza's also got that late-'80s production values on Shaday, but it's quite good pop stuff if you like that kind of thing. Actually, I haven't listened to it for so long I suspect I'd hate it these days...

Other than that, I don't really know. Most klezmer or post-klezmer, if it has vocals, would be in Yiddish.

Peter Hollo (raven), Sunday, 8 May 2005 01:14 (8 years ago) Permalink

Tonight at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival, they screened a film called "Jericho's Echo: Punk Rock in the Holy Land Israel". I didn't see it, but it got a five-star review in one of the entertainment weeklies. You might be interested in seeing it, or at least looking into some of the bands it covers.

(note: I am assuming that the bands in the film are singing in Hebrew (or perhaps Arabic), although I'm not 100% certain of this)

MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Sunday, 8 May 2005 01:36 (8 years ago) Permalink

Margalit!!

tokyo nursery school: afternoon session (rosemary), Sunday, 8 May 2005 02:49 (8 years ago) Permalink

Also, I like some of the Israeli 60s/70s folky and Eurovisiony stuff.

tokyo nursery school: afternoon session (rosemary), Sunday, 8 May 2005 02:50 (8 years ago) Permalink

you might try delving back through the sound samples and/or reviews transcribed and archived on (NPR/BBC co-produced)theworld.org's Global Hit Page. They end every broadcast reviewing and sampling bands from all over, a different one every day.

don, Sunday, 8 May 2005 04:20 (8 years ago) Permalink

self-promotion warning:

run quick to the little mp3blog thingy i set up. just a few days ago, i put up a track by a band called kavaret that put out a pretty album in the early 70's. it's all in hebrew. i'll see if i can't rip the whole thing from vinyl and make a ysi of it sometime this week (if you're interested, that is.)

http://www.livejournal.com/~instantmovement

mason r butler, Sunday, 8 May 2005 04:49 (8 years ago) Permalink

Shalom Chanoch & Arik Einstein made two classic albums of Israeli folkpop with hints of psych and prog. '60s/'70s, so fear not the production. plenty of simple, catchy Hebrew to sing along with - "Kach l'cha isha u'bne la bayit..." Shablool is the standout, imho, though Plastelina is also good. i'm not as hot on Einstein's solo Poozy, but it's another key record of its time. the three albums were issued together as a 3CD set titled Shablool B'Kufsa ("snail in a box"). shouldn't be hard to find.

Sheshet, K'tzat Acheret, Zingale - classic Israeli prog/pop.

Lord Flimnap, Hot Fur, Ashqelon Quilt - newer bands in this vein. and, unlike the fine RockFour and the magnificent Churchills, they usually sing in Hebrew.

echoinggrove (echoinggrove), Sunday, 8 May 2005 06:14 (8 years ago) Permalink

you also can't go wrong with a nice Naomi Shemer best-of. Israel's own Joan Baez. not the strongest voice, but the songs are immortal.

echoinggrove (echoinggrove), Sunday, 8 May 2005 06:19 (8 years ago) Permalink

yeah theworld.org featured RockFour; sounded good, should still be in their archive. Didn't the Churchills later move to the UK and record as Judas Jump? How was that?

don, Monday, 9 May 2005 01:54 (8 years ago) Permalink

RockFour is all in English now, no? I heard some of their earlier all-Hebrew stuff, and it sounded pretty different.

Hurting (Hurting), Monday, 9 May 2005 01:56 (8 years ago) Permalink

you also can't go wrong with a nice Naomi Shemer best-of. Israel's own Joan Baez. not the strongest voice, but the songs are immortal.

-- echoinggrove (echoinggrov...), May 8th, 2005.

I just came across this:

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=572533&contrassID=2&subContrassID=4&sbSubContrassID=0

Hurting (Hurting), Monday, 9 May 2005 01:58 (8 years ago) Permalink

Minimal Compact!

Morley Timmons (Donna Brown), Monday, 9 May 2005 02:26 (8 years ago) Permalink

Churchills became Jerico Jones.

the last three RockFour albums have been sung in (flawless, virtually accent-less) English, but the band's earlier albums do feature songs in Hebrew. in a similar retro-psych style, maybe a little less of the penchant for stadium-sized riffs and choruses. i think they're a pretty sweet band in either phase. comparable to Soundtrack of Our Lives, but with better songs.

forgot about Danny Ben Israel. his Bullshit 3 1/4 is sorta overhyped, like a lot of "exotic" vintage psych, but still worthwhile. the disparity betwen the conservatism of Hebrew (a language without profanity) and the freakout/fuck the system attitude of the '60s makes for an interesting listen.

i mentioned K'tzat Acheret (who also went as "The No-Names"), effectively a supergroup of Shlomo Gronich, Shem Tov Levy, and Shlomo Ydov. but Gronich is also responsible for three of the most bizarre items in the Israeli rock canon: the solo Why Didn't You Tell Me? and Cotton Candy and, with Matti Caspi, Behind the Sounds. pop with operatic and symphonic detours; WDYTM is as close as Israeli music gets to RIO, and it's damn good.

did Minimal Compact ever sing in Hebrew? Malka Spigel's first solo album, Rosh Ballata, had songs in both Hebrew and English. another great one, esp. if you like the lush sound of Crammed-era MC and Colin Newman's post-Wire solo outings. through Swim~, Malka and Colin's also gave some exposure to Plastic Venus, a noisy Israeli dreampop group - sound something like Loop meets the Mary Chain; but i think the vocals buried under all the fuzz are usually in English.

echoinggrove (echoinggrove), Monday, 9 May 2005 03:19 (8 years ago) Permalink

I found this radio station on the web -- seems to play a mix of "classic" Israeli music from various decades and news and talk.

http://bet.iba.org.il/

Hurting (Hurting), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 20:22 (8 years ago) Permalink

2 years pass...

Picked up Gelbart - My Favorite Vacation today in a good Tel Aviv record store. Not in Hebrew, but good Israeli electronic music somewhat in the IDM vein, although not as humorless as most IDM.

Hurting 2, Tuesday, 22 April 2008 16:28 (5 years ago) Permalink

try to get Plastic Venus - s.t. - one of the best israeli reords ever.

Zeno, Tuesday, 22 April 2008 17:27 (5 years ago) Permalink

i see a few Poozy records around in shops and am almost always tempted to buy them, but never sound good enough to spend money on them

jaxon, Tuesday, 22 April 2008 19:01 (5 years ago) Permalink

11 months pass...

This is the best Israeli record ever recorded imo. you can check it out here:
http://tastes-like-rocknroll.blogspot.com/2008/11/plastic-venus-plastic-venus-1994.html

sort of like Live Skull, but darker and heavier.
a master piece.

Zeno, Sunday, 22 March 2009 18:04 (4 years ago) Permalink

Does Hurting like klezmer?

ian, Sunday, 22 March 2009 18:16 (4 years ago) Permalink

another great band:Zikney Zefat: Butthole Surfers meets Jesus Lizard or something
here's a video clip:

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/-1993/30280421

Zeno, Sunday, 22 March 2009 18:17 (4 years ago) Permalink

another Zikney Zefat:

Zeno, Sunday, 22 March 2009 18:19 (4 years ago) Permalink

Rir:

Zeno, Sunday, 22 March 2009 18:29 (4 years ago) Permalink

all songs 1990-1993

Zeno, Sunday, 22 March 2009 18:33 (4 years ago) Permalink

Does Hurting like klezmer?

― ian, Sunday, 22 March 2009 18:16 (1 hour ago)

Not so much. But I tend to like out-of-tune shtetly sounding klezmir much more than avant/nuklezmir

Bonobos in Paneradise (Hurting 2), Sunday, 22 March 2009 19:20 (4 years ago) Permalink

HaNeshamot HaTehorot (The Pure Souls) - s/t (1974). radio-ready pop, with strong Spanish and Laurel Canyon Sound influences, like an Israeli Fleetwood Mac. great M/F harmonies. love this album. try "Lo Holech Im Kol HaLev" or "Shelo Yigamer Li HaLaila."

Kruzenshtern & Parohod make pretty crazy, punky, RIO-y neo-klezmer that still sounds shtetly.

Mr. Hal Jam, Sunday, 22 March 2009 22:30 (4 years ago) Permalink

Does the world really need two simultaneous Israeli music threads??

Anyway, Aviv Geffen's Cloudy Now is classic. And I'm really loving Emily Karpel's Nemashim album from last year. Very poppy.

Mordy, Sunday, 22 March 2009 22:41 (4 years ago) Permalink

it's nice that there's even one! ken yirbu! (:

Mr. Hal Jam, Sunday, 22 March 2009 22:44 (4 years ago) Permalink

Algiers:

Ophir Zemer, Monday, 23 March 2009 06:54 (4 years ago) Permalink

A classic from the 80's:

Ophir Zemer, Monday, 23 March 2009 07:07 (4 years ago) Permalink

9 months pass...

Saw Shablool - pretty terrible film imo but the music is good. Hippieism doesn't make much sense to me in Israel in the post-67-war, pre-Yom Kippur War years but maybe I'm missing something.

pithfork (Hurting 2), Thursday, 21 January 2010 04:47 (3 years ago) Permalink

Huh? Hippie-ism makes perfect sense in that time period, where the Yom Kippur War = Altamont x 100000000000

I haven't seen the film "Shablool", but the music is awesome (nice thread revive -- I listened to it over the weekend!)

NoTimeBeforeTime, Thursday, 21 January 2010 11:44 (3 years ago) Permalink

if you are in the mood for folk songs, martha schlamme is awesome.

gpady80 (tehresa), Thursday, 21 January 2010 12:16 (3 years ago) Permalink

search: raisins and almonds

gpady80 (tehresa), Thursday, 21 January 2010 12:17 (3 years ago) Permalink

Hippie-ism makes perfect sense in that time period, where the Yom Kippur War = Altamont x 100000000000

Maybe what I mean is that '67 for Israel is the antithesis of what Vietnam was for the States -- quick, euphoric, leading to an invincible feeling, etc. And also the country was still very new and hadn't really progressed to the point of a mass feeling of rebellion against the old conformist culture - the film kind of tries to set up the religious authority as the thing to rebel against, but Israel had such a strong secular socialist tendency from the beginning that this feels a little forced to me.

pithfork (Hurting 2), Thursday, 21 January 2010 12:31 (3 years ago) Permalink

3 weeks pass...

This thread (or at least the Israeli-related portion of it) is the equivalent of casually discussing the enjoyment of white South African music would have been back in the late 80s. Personally, I would be ashamed, especially if I were part of the group in whose name Israel was created.

_Rudipherous_, Saturday, 13 February 2010 11:14 (3 years ago) Permalink

SB'd

Mordy, Saturday, 13 February 2010 16:24 (3 years ago) Permalink

This thread (or at least the Israeli-related portion of it) is the equivalent of casually discussing the enjoyment of white South African music would have been back in the late 80s.

fixed that for you

Lee Dorrian Gray (J0hn D.), Saturday, 13 February 2010 16:41 (3 years ago) Permalink

holy crap, dude!

xp to Rudipherous

the not-glo-fi one (Ioannis), Saturday, 13 February 2010 18:02 (3 years ago) Permalink

awesome:

Zeno, Saturday, 27 February 2010 17:53 (3 years ago) Permalink

2 months pass...

Someone asked for some artist recommendations for an Israeli music for mixtape for mideasttunes.com, so here's what I came up with (with recommended songs);

Infected Mushroom - Bombat
Orphaned Land - Birth of the Three
Amaseffer - Slaves for Life
Distorted - Voices from Within
Melechesh - A Summoning of Ifrit and Genii
Useless ID - State of Fear
Aviv Geffen - It's Cloudy
Kaveret - Yo Ya
Dana International - Diva
Danny Ben-Israel - The Hippies of Today are the Assholes of Tomorrow
Ofra Haza - Chai
Adi Ran - Ata Kadosh
Hadag Nahash - Sticker Song
Subliminal - Tikva

Thought someone here might dig the list. If I can actually mixtape it at some point, I'll put it together. For the time being tho, here's the Adi Ran song (epic Chassidic Breslov folk-rock):

Mordy, Wednesday, 28 April 2010 15:32 (3 years ago) Permalink

lebanon, zaka, midnight peacocks,monotonix,karusela,tv budhas,the astroglides,inga dingo,danny hadar,algire,barbara
all good to great israely indie acts.

nakamura, Wednesday, 28 April 2010 17:25 (3 years ago) Permalink

was tinot the ak duck stuff a few years ago, nico-teen who put out something recently is a bit proto-chillwave (was copping moves from ariel pink back in the pre-hro era), gelbart and i wanna say mule-driver. all electronicky indie, all pretty good iirc.

plax (ico), Wednesday, 28 April 2010 17:51 (3 years ago) Permalink

Ushpizin is a really good film, btw.

hills like white people (Hurting 2), Wednesday, 28 April 2010 17:57 (3 years ago) Permalink

Agreed!

Mordy, Wednesday, 28 April 2010 17:58 (3 years ago) Permalink

I realize psytrance is probably more indicative of what people in Israel listen to, but if you're going for a dance music angle there's a lot that's, well, better than Infected Mushroom. Though a lot of it I don't think is particularly good, but not at all bad, the stuff that the Be As One guys, or Guy Gerber are doing is a lot more interesting, and is probably more palatable than psytrance anyhow... Also from what I know, Badawi is supposed to be interesting, but I haven't heard all that much (but what I have has been quite good].

Tonight I Dine on Turtle Soup (EDB), Wednesday, 28 April 2010 19:37 (3 years ago) Permalink

Hamas security forces break up Gaza Strip`s first major hip-hop concert
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1165205.html

Just from a couple days ago. I wonder whether they have any music available anyway. I covered a Gaza group a couple years ago, but their stuff only got a broader audience because they collaborated with an Israeli band on some tracks.

Mordy, Thursday, 29 April 2010 06:14 (3 years ago) Permalink

Apparently Time wrote about them late last year:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1931360,00.html

Mordy, Thursday, 29 April 2010 06:15 (3 years ago) Permalink

anyway=anywhere

Mordy, Thursday, 29 April 2010 06:17 (3 years ago) Permalink

1 month passes...

Zeno, Tuesday, 22 June 2010 16:42 (2 years ago) Permalink

5 months pass...

One of the most gorgeous albums of the year.

http://ronialter.bandcamp.com/

Mordy, Friday, 10 December 2010 23:32 (2 years ago) Permalink

5 months pass...

הבילויים (Ha'Biluim) are pretty great:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/lZdTwvsQKfs

mirauncorzo, Sunday, 29 May 2011 12:22 (1 year ago) Permalink

Friend's bad:

http://hashlishi.bandcamp.com/

when use becomes abuse (S-), Sunday, 29 May 2011 12:33 (1 year ago) Permalink

*band*

when use becomes abuse (S-), Sunday, 29 May 2011 12:33 (1 year ago) Permalink

1 year passes...

i kinda love this Hatikvah 6 album - Kol Israel. on spotify: http://open.spotify.com/album/0VLoKihOLBBFxkQJ9W8Whc

Mordy, Tuesday, 25 September 2012 19:13 (7 months ago) Permalink

5 months pass...

Well, okay. I didn't think I'd ever post to this thread again, but this is quite interesting, so resisting the temptation to editorialize. . .

http://972mag.com/revivos-project-brings-mizrahi-pop-back-to-its-arab-roots/67422/

(I do like this music quite a bit.)

_Rudipherous_, Monday, 18 March 2013 16:07 (2 months ago) Permalink

1 month passes...

really dig this guy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_311596&feature=iv&src_vid=5mxh9Ai4-mM&v=dyz5iC3-mgU

but it's instrumental. Haven't found much hebrew-language music that really holds up for me. I guess you can only expect so much good music out of such a small country.

charlie 4chan, internet detective (Hurting 2), Thursday, 18 April 2013 01:54 (1 month ago) Permalink

also he's berlin-based now and has been for some time

charlie 4chan, internet detective (Hurting 2), Thursday, 18 April 2013 01:54 (1 month ago) Permalink

bizarrely large number of good israeli jazz musicians though

charlie 4chan, internet detective (Hurting 2), Thursday, 18 April 2013 01:56 (1 month ago) Permalink

2 weeks pass...

https://soundcloud.com/hayelala

Mordy, Wednesday, 8 May 2013 20:21 (2 weeks ago) Permalink


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