Another Pop #2: Lofiles.org
January 6, 2011, 1 comments
(Photo: Shlomo Sonnenfeld, Tel Aviv.)
For the second installment of our series about kinds of pop music we would usually not cover by ourselves, we’ve asked Shlomo Sonnenfeld, author of the incredible Tel Aviv based blog Lofiles.org, to tell us something about the Israeli/Middle Eastern music scene. Going through his archives, he decided to send over bits and pieces of music he has written about in the last couple of years that our readers are usually not exposed to. Enjoy his splendid selection below.
Shlomo Sonnenfeld:
By now he is signed to Sony Columbia records, but I don’t know if you have heard him or of him. He sounds like a male Janis Joplin, extremely soulful and rockin. His name is Asaf Avidan and this first song I have heard from him just blew me away. Israel`s most successful musical export, other than Yael Naim.
Your Anchor:
This funky dude named Kutiman had this brilliant idea of remixing Youtube video clips like you would do with audio samples. The web page of this venture looks like it sounds, a ragged Youtube page. Got to listen to this project of his, ‘ThruYou’, 8 breakbeat funky jams by theee man. My favorite is Wait for me.
Wait for me:
Jewish Wedding Klezmer middle eastern surf mishmash, a local trio consists of a Tuba player, guitar and drums. I love Surfing Tuba, a track that sounds like it was written for a Tarantino movie.
Surfin Tuba:
Yinon Muallem is an Israeli born musician to parents of an Iraqi origin who began his musical career studying latin percussion. Over the years, following his family roots, he was drawn to middle eastern music. He had moved to muslim Istanbul, studying the oud with Turkish virtuoso Yurdal Tockan, and this led Yinon to fruitful collaborations with local Turkish musicians, and eventually to perform, teach and record authentic music. Listen to Orada Olmak, for something different:
Usually, free jazz is not my cup of tea, but musicians like Albert are worth walking the extra mile. Albert is considered the Israeli free-jazz and avantgarde movement ambassador, he is a gifted musician, a brilliant saxophone and flute player, and if that’s not enough, an academy lecturer and teacher. I love this new album of his titled Peacemaker, a record talking about learning to live in peace with yourself, about maturity, about trying to live a full life, and my favorite track is Long Story:
I have chosen to film a series of lo-fi clips of this band at one of Israel’s most notorious areas, the old city of Jaffa’s flea market. The trio, playing banjo, trumpet and street signs, mixing with the local junkies. Listen to a song of their first album, and watch a promo clip I shot for this project of mine:
The Ramirez Brothers – Sizzlin
One of the shyest keeping lo(pro)fi duos you’ll ever come across, a husband and wife, an Israeli musician/visual artist and his American wife in a really minimalistic bedroom project.
For You:
Also check their new bedroom album Home, my favs are Late Night and Flowers for Smelling, so simple and straightforward.
Late Night:
Flowers for Smelling:
Charlie Megira & the Modern Dance Club
Such a character. Actually a smalltown boy, and it’s funny considering Israel is such a tiny country to begin with, but this guy comes out of one of those meager towns in Israel, and once in a while he shows up in the big city of Tel Aviv to spread his anger, shocks everyone and flees to his hole. He is accompanied by the sweet talented female musician/drummer Michal Kahan.
Check out Rhythm of Hate on his myspace.
My favorite band to come out of this region (actually not quite, they came from Northern Africa ) is Tinariwen, a band of Tuareg musicians, led by Ibrahim El Habib. They play Rai music mixed with traditional Tuareg melodies, adding western funk and pop elements. Their music is the ultimate ‘Sahara desert’ answer to the Eno produced Remain in Light by the Talking Heads. I know most of you are not familiar with Rai music and the Sahara’s musical nuances, but all you got to do is to listen to this song.
Nigeria Special
This is one of my all time favorite compilations, coming from western Africa. This double CD collection showcases the funkiest scene Africa has ever known, a fruitful era influenced by western world funk and pop and redefining a genre consisting of African polyrhythms and funk. My favorite song of this compilation is Feso Jaiye by The Sahara All Stars of Jos:
The Sahara All Stars of Jos – Feso Jaiye
She was born in Damascus City. She has graduated from the higher institution of music in Damascus as a classical vocalist in 2007. Lena attempts to revive Syrian folk music, and delivers it in a contemporary style and arrangement on one hand, trying to keep the originality of the tunes and the lyrics on the other hand. She believes this will make it easier for western audiences to comprehend and listen to a ‘harder to digest’ Arabic music.
Chaam:
Some words about Shlomo Sonnenfeld and Lofiles.org:
Born in the city of Haifa, Shlomo Sonnenfeld started playing gigs around the age of 15. After moving to NYC at the age of 21, he started an amazingly prolific career as a composer and producer in numerous musical projects, ranging from punk and rock to hip hop (including projects together with Gangstarr and Diamond D in the late 80s, to name but a few) and R&B. Having been forced to move back to Israel in 1994 due to urgent family matters, Shlomo continued working in quite a few musical endeavors. Lately, he has become more and more experimental, for instance by working on a piece based on Mahler’s 5th Symphony for the Tel Aviv Museum.
His latest (non-musical) project is wall2wall, an idea that was born in Berlin last year when Shlomo was attempting to shoot a film about the city’s music scene together with Matisyahu, a photo project loosely connecting the former Berlin Wall and Jerusalem’s holy Wailing Wall, due to come out soon.
Shlomo’s own music blog Lofiles.org was started in late 2008, with the purpose to cover worthwhile independent music from literally all over the planet, an artistic open-mindedness that is without any doubt making Lofiles.org one of the most interesting and unique blogs around.
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