Browse by Artist: BOOM PAM

Artist:	BOOM PAM
Title:	Boom Pam
Label:	ESSAY RECORDINGS (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	AY 005CD

This debut from Boom Pam is filled with magical surf guitars from Tel Aviv kicked by tuba and drums on an ecstatic Mediterranean spicy Balkan trip! Forget the daily headlines and immerse yourself in Tel Aviv's vibrant music scene. If there's a sound you can't find here in this offbeat Mediterranean metropolis, it probably doesn't exist. The music brewed up by the Boom Pam four is the acoustic equivalent of a high-energy drink. They already have a cult following in the Middle East, and now they have wowed European audiences in their gigs with Shantel at his Bucovina Club in Berlin, Frankfurt and Zurich. This CD, released worldwide exclusively on the Essay label, marks their recording debut. It is hard to categorize their music. So maybe we should invent a new category for Middle Eastern surf rock with a pinch of Balkan, a touch of irreverence and a lot of groove. Along with their two surf guitars, minimalist percussion and distinctive tuba comes a unique blend of Mediterranean, Balkan and Greek styles, sweetened with Jewish melodies and fattened up with cinematic circus music. The musicians are fed up with the klezmer cliche that still tends to be associated with Jewish music. "Nobody listens to klezmer," they say in unison. "Klezmer is the stuff that's sold in airport shops as 'the music of Israel.' Well, there is usually some klezmer in it, but that really isn't what's happening here -- that's what's popular outside Israel, but it isn't what's happening here. And there's a lot happening here."

Artist:	BOOM PAM
Title:	Puerto Rican Nights
Label:	ESSAY RECORDINGS (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	AY 018CD

Tel Aviv's Boom Pam returns with a second album for Essay Recordings. Puerto Rican Nights is made up entirely of cover versions of the beloved tunes they've been playing live throughout the years, and which are now officially being released for the first time. As the band explains, "Our mix really describes Tel Aviv... a place where people from all over the world meet. This sound is a sharp cocktail of all the different styles that collide here. And we try to bring them all together." Their music is a prolific dialogue between East and West, with an almost hypnotizing virtuosity and eloquence that moves you. Each member of the band differs from the other and plays an equally important part within the exchange of their artistic personalities. Whether it's their great version of "Shayeret Harochvim" with Maor Cohen (originally a song by Israeli folk pioneers Dudaim), which they turn into a country/surf/Israeli rock version, their theatrical version of "Marylyn Jones," a song from an Israeli Hassidic comedy, with the charismatic singer Dror Romem, or sticking tight to the groove of Tomer Yosef's "Ani Rotze Lazuz" ("I Want To Move"), Boom Pam hold onto their roots, while pulling up others deep from the Balkan underground. There are three great tunes which Uri found on his parents' old cassettes from their days in a Balkan dance group: the first is the dramatic opener "Ushest," and the second is "Krai Dunavsko," in which they flow freely from Greek music to dirty rock 'n' roll, and the third is "Chervoné Coralé." They also bring Dick Dale to life with their speedy version of "The Wedge," drawing new connections between American surf guitar and the glissando sound of Arabic quarter tones. "Longa Sultaniyegah" is an old Turkish song which Uzi learned from his brother. "Ay Carmela" appears in two shiny versions, one instrumental and the other with singer Italo Gonzales. The song was part of the soundtrack to the Israeli movie Comrade, and the section starring the band is included as a bonus video, along with the video for "Dalida." The instrumental version of the song "Boom Pam" is also here, since it has become their personal trademark. Boom Pam are: Uzi Feinerman (guitars, banjo, harmonica & vocals), Yuval "Tuby" Zolotov (tuba), Uri Brauner Kinrot (guitars, saxophone & vocals), Dudu Kohav (drums & percussion).

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