Daniela & Ben Spector: Love Is

In a week where the spectre of the region’s longest standing conflict reared its ugly head again (Jerusalem: Middle East’s oldest unresolved conflict) it’s strange to be writing about something as inconsequential as my latest Israeli album purchase; but perhaps that’s for the best… God only knows enough column inches are being spent on explaining and describing the escalation of violence across Israel and Palestine the last few days.

Whilst in Tel Aviv this week I picked up a new Israeli album by Daniela & Ben Spector which has been pretty much on repeat since I uploaded it onto my iPod. Thinking back to when I first moved to Israel, Daniela Spector was one of the few Israeli artists that populated my iPod; and I can still remember in one of our first weeks here in Jerusalem venturing out to see her perform at our local music venue, The Yellow Submarine, alongside a host of other up and coming Israeli indie-alternative singers. Anyway after the success of her first album she has now released her new album, “Love Is”, this time along with her husband and sound engineer, Ben Spector. And to answer what I know you must all be thinking, he is indeed (distantly) related to the infamous music producer Phil Spector.

 

Whereas her first album was sung  in Hebrew her new album is sung completely in English. I think one of the joys I get from listening to music sung in Hebrew (or indeed in any foreign language I have tried to learn) is the way I over time gradually begin to understand new sections of a song’s lyrics as my Hebrew slowly improves; so on that note I was slightly disappointed that they chose to sing in English. But really this matters little when their album is so rewarding in other ways; take for instance the refreshing shift in her style from the simple (but near faultless) singer-songwriter songs of her first album to something a little more electro/synth influenced, something a little more daring – part Charlotte Gainsbourg, part Au Revoir Simone. All-in-all the perfect album to put on the stereo on this cold and wet Thursday night here in Jerusalem whilst doing your best to avoid, for tonight at least, the barrage of ugly news stories going on around here.

Anyway, I find it hard to put a description of music into words at the best of the times so I will leave you with a couple of videos from their album. And for those who wish to give the whole album a go you can listen to it for free here.

 

A Weekend in the City (dizzy heights and bright lights)

Given we only live a mere hour’s drive from Israel’s largest city, Tel Aviv, it’s surprising how few times we’ve actually ventured over there this last year – especially as it’s meant to be one of the hippest and happening cities around. Only yesterday the newspapers here were reporting how Tel Aviv has been listed as #3 in Lonely Planet’s top cities to visit in 2011.

Tel Aviv is the total flipside of Jerusalem, a modern Sin City on the sea rather than an ancient Holy City on a hill. Hedonism is the one religion that unites its inhabitants. There are more bars than synagogues, God is a DJ and everyone’s body is a temple. Yet, scratch underneath the surface and Tel Aviv, or TLV, reveals itself as a truly diverse 21st-century Mediterranean hub. By far the most international city in Israel, Tel Aviv is also home to a large gay community, a kind of San Francisco in the Middle East. Thanks to its university and museums, it is also the greenhouse for Israel’s growing art, film and music scenes.

Well ‘lucky us’ being only so close to this exciting metropolis on the Mediterranean – for all its supposed charms the city still remains a bit of an enigma. Unfortunately arriving to the city by bus involves navigating what can only be described as the bus terminal from hell; a multi-story building built like a parking lot with an insidious labyrinth of creaky elevators, dark stairwells, trashy shops selling pirated goods and greasy food outlets – and the adjacent neighbourhoods aren’t much better. The sleek white Bauhaus architecture that makes parts of Tel Aviv so attractive couldn’t seem further away.

Still once you get away from this monstrosity the city does prove to be everything that Jerusalem isn’t. It’s hard to think of two cities so diametrically opposed located so close to one another.

This weekend we ventured over to Tel Aviv to see catch up on the latest from Yoni Bloch, one of our favourite local pop/rock stars, as he put on a gig with a full brass and string band. The concert took place in a bland, out-of-town themed bar (no Brixton Academy here) and the crowd seem to be populated by secular middle class families – maybe not as hip and happening event as the Lonely Planet has perhaps imagined in Tel Aviv, but nevertheless worth the schlep from Jerusalem – if for nothing else the excuse to sleep over in Tel Aviv, with a large apartment at the top of high-rise at our disposal.

The only slight annoyance was that even here in the most secular of Israel’s cities the supremacy of religious regulation means that public transport comes to a complete standstill from Friday evening to Saturday evening. So while we may well have been able to enjoy the pleasures of the plentiful non-kosher restaurants and cafés, we ended up doing our fair share of trudging back and forth across the city.

As the sun set of over the Mediterranean, the city’s various skyscrapers lit up the skyline, a view we could take in with all its brightness from our balcony; a slight contrast from the view out over the orthodox synagogue and semi-dilapidated buildings that make up our Jerusalem neighbourhood.

Saturday afternoon was spent doing the stereotypically liberal and secular Tel Avivian thing, sipping lattés in a street side café whilst reading our way through the Haaretz newspaper (Israel’s only broadsheet paper – and willing to criticise Israel), not to mention keeping half an eye on the live Arsenal game they were showing on the TV set. Bliss! And for a moment we could almost kid ourselves into believing that Tel Aviv is indeed like any other Western city and that the prison-like states of Gaza and the West Bank,  a mere stone throw away, are really are not of our concern or repsonsibility. Alas…

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Eurovision: An Israeli Perspective

Hello Europe, Jerusalem calling.

Near the top of my favourite guilty pleasures would have to be Eurovision. How could anyone not be half-smitten by this pan-European spectacle of all things kitsch, with a parade of 20+ songs of unparalleled awfulness – with costumes and dance routines to match – followed up by a re-education in European political point scoring with its fuzzy TV link-ups to bewildered European judges. One of the year’s TV highlights on so many levels.

Fortunately my enthralment for this tasteless musical project is matched by my better half and Eurovision 2010 was, I think, our 4^th Eurovision celebrated together. For the first time we witnessed it all from Israel. As one of the more successful countries in Eurovision history I had half-expected a slight Eurovision fever to descend over the land…but alas. The land of Dana International

Dana International and Israeli pop's 15 minutes of fame.

fame (the Israeli transsexual who won in 1998) seemed to let the event pass by without much furore. Of course it wouldn’t be a European gathering without Israel feeling it had been hard done by in some way or another: this year, whilst all other countries had maps of their respective countries light up onto the screen, Israel’s was omitted – the organisers unsure no doubt as to whether include the West Bank & Golan Heights on any map of Israel. This led to an official complaint from Israeli Foreign Office – “Israel chastises Eurovision for failing to show country map” Sigh…it’s only Eurovision!!

Anyway, although it was shown on national television, the financially beleaguered Channel 1 (the national broadcaster) opted out of sending a man with a microphone to comment on proceedings, thus leaving us to endure the entire show without any of the witty and sarcastic commentary that we had become so used to with the BBC with Terry Wogan and Graham Norton.  And like most of Europe’s national broadcasters I am sure Channel 1 breathed sigh of relief that their entry didn’t win, bringing the responsibility of holding next year’s event back with him…

So yes, Israel scraped home in 14^th place with a classic mediocre Eurovision ballad. Having watched the Israeli entry hit all the wrong notes in his semi-final performance he did manage at least to do okay in the final. Still without the catchy joie de vivre of other acts (Romania’s fire-exploding comes to mind) he was always going to struggle…now let me know if you think I’m taking this too seriously!

So, as we all now know Germany won – so much for my comment after their performance they could never win as a) it was a bland performance and b) half of Europe has an engrained grudge against them so they could never amass enough points. Whilst Asya and friends scanned every point tally for Israel’s marks (for which a special thank you goes out to Finland and the Netherlands who gave Israel 10 points!) it became increasingly clear that Germany was running away things – and that the U.K. would again be last.

One of the few countries that didn’t give Germany any points was of course Israel – I think tactical political voting doesn’t even begin to cover the bad blood once held between these two countries. Now I wouldn’t normally open that can of worms in the midst such a light-hearted post on Eurovision, but it was telling to hear amongst all this light-hearted political point scoring Asya’s friend suddenly remark how much she hated Germany. And before you wondering whether she really meant this she proceeded to reveal a tattoo inscribed with her grandmothers’ concentration camp number.

It’s at moments like that you feel a little loss for words…

 

Can Israel Rock? Well Yoni Bloch isn’t Bad.

As with every other new country I’ve moved to I’ve taken it upon myself to sample new music, getting into singers and bands whose presence back home would, at best, be limited to gathering dust at the back of the world music section. My ventures into South America ended up with a whole album collection of really good local bands; from alternative Rock to Electro-tango – though naturally giving all forms of cumbia-pop and reggaton a very wide berth.

Thankfully Israel has also provided me with interesting new bands and singers, and many news albums to spice up my record collection.

I am sure when you think of Israeli  popular music you will all instantly recall the 1998 Eurovision winning song “Diva” by transvestite Dana International. This, however, is not what I mean by interesting Israeli music. Amidst the horrors of the Middle Eastern-sounding pop singles that are churned out by these Israeli “artists”, I have been duly directed towards the few decent rock and pop bands that exist here.

One of the better local rock singers I’ve stumbled across would have to be Yoni Bloch (יוני בלוך). Last week I bought his first album, with 15 tracks of simple melody-driven Israel pop/rock. I’ve included below of some of the better songs for your enjoyment:

The video below is a live TV performance of  one of my favorite songs  from the album. Unfortunately the quality of the recording here is a bit dodgy.