Israeli pop music

Thanks to the “Paid in Full” sample of her voice Ofra Haza is probably the best known Israeli star abroad, singing in Hebrew and Arabic and she changed from doing Eurovision stuff to drawing on her Yemeni roots. (I’m not adding more as I’m assuming most ppl are familiar with her)

David Broza is the only actual pop star I am at all familiar with, his style (what little I’ve heard) is folk-rock with flamenco touches. He is a huge star but I haven’t found myself overly impressed with his stuff. He has talent but I found what I heard very middle of the road.

Personal faves include Emil Zrihan, a cantor at a synagogue in Israel, his one album Ashkelon was practically glued into my CD player when I first got it. He has an amazing voice and sings traditional folk songs from his childhood in Morocco and devotional songs with a distinctly Andalusian & Moroccan flavor – flamenco guitar, use of the oud etc.

Ex-Centric Sound System is another group I think great but don’t know whether to characterise them as Israeli pop or rock. The group is made up of Ghanian and Israeli musicians and mixes ambient, dub and funk. While there is a clear Ghanian base for the music and they pull from other sources, (Ethiopia, Caribbean) there isn’t anything I could characterise as ‘Israeli’ if that means a more traditionally based sound.

Habrera Hativeet is a group which very consciously tries to draw on all the various strands of music available (Russian, Moroccan, Yemeni, etc.) I was pleasantly surprised by them when I saw them in concert as I expected it to sound pretty bland but their live show was great and as a bonus the leader of the group looks just like Mr. Spock.

There is apparently a huge ecstasy fuelled trance scene but I don’t know much more than that. Sorry not to be of more help but most of the music I know from there doesn’t fall under pop.

it's pop for my purposese.

I find the idea of any kind of Israeli rave scene highly amusing.

Any particular reason why?

and yeah, blah blah blah they didn't ask to be attacked by suicide bombers etc., but still, even taking an Israeli line you'd have to see a certain strangeness about raving in a heavily militarised country.

I don't really know too much about it though.

What, do you mean that Palestinians would be disproportionately represented on the Israeli pop charts?

yeah, kind of. Marginalised from mainstream society, do they nevertheless represent an Other from which musical creativity is plucked?

i'll give a nod to an anomaly - Danny ben Israel's semiclassic 'Bullshit 3 1/4." pretty sweet prog-psych whathaveyou alb, circa 1970, that stands up to anything on Ohr or Futura from the same period. and to the (still) Jerusalem-based Ashqelon Quilt, one of the few bands, Israeli or otherwise, truly carrying on in the freaked-out tradition of VdGG or the Softs.

Paradoxically a part of the maqam tradition has been preserved in Israel, due to the emigration from the end of the nineteen forties of many Iraqis of Jewish descent.

After the immigration into Israel the Israeli radio broadcasted maqam concerts. However apart from some posts at the radio there was not enough work for the emigrated musicians to base a steady income on, partly due to the fact of course that the Israeli Western oriented Ashkenazi culture at its best was indifferent and in many cases unmistakably hostile to the oriental cultural influx. What resulted was one general oriental music ensemble of the Israeli radio, in which all oriental regions and style were merged into a undistinguished soup. Nowadays, after the oriental Jewish emancipation movement, there is a renaissance of traditional oriental music, of which some interesting music originates, however especially in the Moroccan music, where contact with its mother country politically is not that problematic.

Still the older generations now on both sides recall with sadness and nostalgia the great shared past. So you could easily arrange the view of an honourable old Jewish Iraqi musician, Naim Razjwan, in a high tech supermarket in Tel Aviv, crying, while no-one can notice why, while he is listening through a Walkman to a rare duet by Nazem Al-Ghazali and Selima Murad.

Every now and then at international music conferences it was possible for both sides to meet.

So quite a few of the Iraqi Jewish musicians and music related people left Iraq. However the all time most popular female singer and Jewish singer, Selima Murad, stayed in her country and became probably more popular than ever. Although finally she died poor, like many artists, her name is still on everyone's lips.

And the Jewish former general director of the Baghdad Electricity Company, Naim Twenna, used to receive the likes of Mohammed Al-Qubanchi, Selima Murad and Nazem Al-Ghazali in his house for concerts, until 1975, and used to be acquainted with the current Iraqi president as well. After 1975 he left Iraq for London and Turkey, until after a few years when he went to Israel. He has now just retired as the head of the Arab music department of Israeli radio.

Among the singers which established themselves in Israel were the aforementioned maqam singers Yusuf Huraish , Salim Shibbeth, Yakoub Al-Imary and Hizkel Qassab. In relation to this theme it is worthwhile pointing again to the aforementioned brothers Saleh and Daud Al-Kuwaiti, composers of many pestehs, for instance for Zakiyah George, who, as mentioned above, had a relationship with Saleh, until his departure with his brother for Israel. But, for the reasons just explained, after their emigrations they did only some recordings, mainly for radio. However, among connoisseurs in Iraq, cassette copies of these recordings are highly valued.

What is Iraqi maqam?

A few pretty Israeli pop songs I've been into lately:

Tal Shegev - America in the Middle of Tel Aviv

Sarit Hadad - Mekudeshet (The chorus lyrics are from the Jewish wedding ceremony: "Marry me with this ring.")

Nico-Teen

this thread never flew but I thought the ak duck label had some interesting synthpop a couple of years ago but I didn't stay paying attention. Gelbart and Nico-Teen were pretty great.

No reason it can't fly now. I'll post stuff that I like as I hear it. The real problem is how underdeveloped Israeli music is, particularly critically. Most of it never leaves Israel, and for instance, trying to find information on that Tal Segev track has been hellish. I want to know who the woman singing on the track is, and so I've started pestering my Israeli friends to try to find out for me. (No luck yet.) AFAIK, there's no Israeli music journalism, and though there's at least one Israeli music channel, they mostly play Mizrachi (read: ethnic) or boring soft Israeli indie rock style crap (which kinda characterizes the rest of Tal Segev's output).

Also, the new Useless ID album ("The Lost Broken Bones") is really great if you like that kind of stuff (pop-punk). Much better than, say, the new New Found Glory album. And it also got a United States release.

http://www.myspace.com/akduckrecords

Ghost Box -style library pop

The Apples! (Kinda jazzy, turntable funk)
http://www.myspace.com/theapplesmusic

They have a debut on Freestyle Records coming out this year:
http://www.freestylerecords.co.uk/index.php?page=albums&pid=FSRCD041

(Sorry, already out!)

A little Metal thread / SXSW / Israeli Pop crossover:

http://www.myspace.com/midnightpeacocks

Not exactly pop music but I've heard monotonix are completely unhinged live: http://www.myspace.com/monotonix

Super cutie (Katy Perry type aesthetics) pop:

http://www.myspace.com/emilykarpel

From Tel Aviv Boom Pam's self-titled debut (Essay Recordings, 2006). Promo sheet: " Along with two surf guitars, minamilist percussion and distinctive tuba comes a uniquie blend of Mediterranean, Balkan and Greek styles, sweetened with Jewish melodies and fattened up with cinematic circus music." Basically rock, big on Dick Dale, who always credited his Lebanese heritage as a big source of surf.

"From Tel Aviv" shoulda been followed by a comma; group's name is Boom Pam, and the album's pretty hot.

one israeli song a week: http://1israelisong.blogspot.com/

I can't find a way to listen to Tal Segev - America b'Toch Tel Aviv anywhere online anymore. sadness.

found one!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAUWrHK9vI4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kLnHzLNuT-M

Quite twisted Israeli pop, the best of its kind right now in Israel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TT3KgPLdugo

Women in Israel protest for the right to sing in public:
http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-703243