Pissuk Rachav - Eretz Hakodesh [Tzadik - 0000]'Eretz Hakodesh' is an album that darts & flirts between Marimba led & Hammond soaked circus music, theatrical & buoyant eastern Jazz wonderings, porn funked pop lined with Theremin ,Surf guitar crawls, and playful to exotic ambient tinged eastern jazz/world/ ambience. It’s certainly a playful, cheeky & buoyant ride through-out with the odd moments of staring longing over deserts sands epic-ness & atmosphere. The project is vocally fronted by French Israeli Jeremy Fogel (who also plays clarinet too) who swoons, soars and freak show croons in his eastern tongue to great theatrical effect over the mix of Marimba flurries & playful/ tuneful clamouring, that are weaved & sewn by Hammond & Harmonium drones/ throbs, or darted with Theremin spaceiness & craziness. We also have added to the mix: Clarinet & Flute, Alto Sax( played by guest John Zorn), Guitar(by another guest Marc Robot) , Bass, Ukelele,drums, various eastern ritual instruments and a little bit of Didgeridoo, Congo plus the odd flurries of female eastern vocalising & singing. Nearly every track here bobs & colourfully darts along switching & mixing musically genres & eastern/western musical themes & displines as it goes. Yet it never seems forced or jarring in it’s intent or mix; with the album often having the feeling of wondering through a strange & often otherworldly eastern bizarre. This is the projects debut album & it’s certainly a exotic, often trilling, buoyant & mainly fun muilt-coloured musical ride with the odd more perverse & porn sonic under tones here & there. Certainly for fans of Zappa at his more exotic & playful or the more eastern spaced highs of the likes of Gong. Roger Batty
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