Dancing To Nothing

The concept of time is one of life's greatest enigmas, but equally fundamental, when it comes to the art of rhythm and beatmaking. Which brings us to one of the most prolific and celebrated beat champions of all time, being Detroit's James "J Dilla" Yancey, master sampler and pioneering hiphop producer, who passed away in 2006 at the age of 32. Every February for the past 10 years and counting fans around the world have been coming together to celebrate his [...]

Ever heard of Stephan Remmler and his band Trio? Maybe not. However, you may have crossed paths with his German new wave hit “Da Da Da”, released at the ultra-coolish, icy beginnings of the '80s; a monotonous, semi-callous, numb, yet cynically funny anti-love song with that now iconic, recurring line, quasi spoken by a deep and seemingly indifferent male voice in the same repetitive groove as the Da Da Da bass: “Ich lieb Dich nicht, Du liebst mich [...]

In a recent mailout by Freemuse, an independent international organisation advocating and defending freedom of expression, we were saddened to learn about some concerning statistics. Entitled "Art Under Threat" the report states that Iran, Turkey, Egypt, Nigeria, China and Russia lead the list of countries "systematically violating and failing to secure artistic freedom in 2016". In fact, these six countries account for 59% of the serious violations recorded [...]

Not to say the Jewish Monkeys' latest outing for Berlin Sessions wasn't highly infectious, but this brand new track off the group's forthcoming sophomore album sure has temperatures running high. On "Fever", the band is anything but bashful, eager to reclaim their rightful spot at the top of the neo-Yiddish palm tree:

We are Jewish Monkeys, we are bandits
We are the Jewish Monkeys, we are shmendriks
We are the Jewish Monkeys, we’re demented
We are the [...]

Here's a little something for all our francophone friends, followers and supporters out there. Recently recorded in Tel Aviv, Jewish Monkeys frontman Gael Zaidner joined television host Valérie Pérez and journalist Arielle Sibony at i24News to speak about the ongoing Klezmer revival, the role of the Jewish Monkeys in all of this and more.

When asked, where the band gets its inspiration from, be it politics, religion or current events, Gael answered: "I think [...]

All hail the Jewish Monkeys, who return in living colour to celebrate the upcoming release of their sophomore album "High Words", releasing on April 28th! But for now, we return to one of the group's favourite tracks "Titina", which you may remember from here. "Titina" is an infectiously upbeat tune that originally featured in Charlie Chaplin's "Modern Times", but was given a Yiddish makeover by the band, adding a touch of their very own funk and punk to the [...]

Just a few decades ago, in certain regions of the world, radio was considered a window to the latter. Families spent hours, seated in front of their respective transmitters, scanning the airwaves, hoping to catch a moment of static-free reality from a far-away place or in some cases, from home.

While radio today has seemingly taken a backseat to visual alternatives, online radio is still alive and kicking. As a matter of fact, besides our own humble venture [...]

A few days ago, Israeli vocal artist Victoria Hanna, whom you may remember from her hiphop-tinged exploration of the Hebrew alphabet, opened a Conference for Hebrew Language with her acclaimed, kabbalistic "Book of Creation" / "22 Letters" performance, which you absolutely need to watch. We actually have three videos to share with you. Here's the video she just posted of said opening and for those non-Hebrew speakers among us, here's her lecture / performance [...]

On Wednesday, NYC-based record label Luaka Bop shared the sad news of Nigerian electronic artist William Onyeabor's passing. In 2013 the imprint released a highly acclaimed compilation of Onyeabor's work entitled "Who is William Onyeabor?" in reference to the "elusive mystery man of music" (Mike Rubin, New York Times, 2013). The release ranked among TIME Magazines best 10 albums of 2013. However, to this day, little is known about the man behind the music.

And [...]

Misirlou, Miserlou, Miserilou? We've had our own share of discussions on how to spell it. Finally we decided it wasn't about the spelling, as much as it was about the music, the song to be exact. And yet, there seems to be a distinct meaning encapsulated in this title, possibly stemming from the Turkish word for Egyptian, mısırlı.

While the song itself was popularized by Dick Dale's 1962 American surf rock version and gained further international acclaim [...]

While we are still trying to come to terms with the brilliance of his critically acclaimed, 2015-released "Space Cassava" EP, Tel Aviv-based multi-instrumentalist Kutiman has moved on to new projects, including his 2016 LP "6am", the first official release on his own label Siyal Music.

Tirelessly working to transcend musical and artistic boundaries (if you need further proof check out his "Mix The City" series) here's his most recent feat, the analog, [...]

What an intriguing project, was the first thought that passed our mind, when watching the trailer to "Bonfires & Stars", a documentary by the Moscow-based Stereotactic collective and director Sasha Voronov. The film details the journey of equally Moscow-based, emerging electronic artist Fyodor Pereverzev, aka Moa Pillar, to the Caucasus, the Kabardino-Balkar Republic to be exact, in order to collaborate with Circassian folk musicians. There he meets his [...]