Magic surf guitars from Tel Aviv kicked by tuba & 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 as well 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. With their two surf guitars, minimalist percussion and distinctive tuba is a real ear-opener. The unique blend of Mediterranean, Balkan and Greek styles, sweetened with Jewish melodies and fattened up with surf rock and circus music is positively cinematic. But you certainly won't be staying in your seat for long. BOOM PAM on Boom Pam: "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." 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."
A biography: Although the band has only been established since 2003, BOOM PAM already have a cult following in Israel. Their cover version of the Greek song Boom Pam, performed with rock star Berry Sakharof, was a massive hit that flew straight into the Israeli charts in 2004. It had already been a hit in 1969 for the Greek singer Aris San, who emigrated to Tel Aviv in the fifties and was one of the first to use E-guitar for Greek music. Meteoric as their career may have been, BOOM PAM did not simply appear out of nowhere overnight. It all began when the band's guitarists Uri and Uzi moved into a flat together in the south of Tel Aviv and started experimenting with oriental guitar sounds. After a few guitar-fuelled nights and some compositions of their own, they called up their old school friend Tuby, a superb tuba player, and asked him to listen to what they'd come up with. Tuby didn't hesitate for a minute. A new band was born Once they had enough pieces, they played their first gig in February 2003. All they needed now was a name. Just one week before the gig, they hit on BOOM PAM in homage to musical rebel Aris San. Even now, their eyes shine at the very mention of his name. For a year, BOOM PAM performed as a trio in clubs and at weddings. Tuby played bass drum as well as tuba. But with his pedal foot threatening to take on a life of its own, the band started looking around for a drummer. And what could have been more obvious than to ask another old friend? Just one phone call to Dudu Kohav was all it took to persuade him to leave his spiritual mountain retreat near Jerusalem and join them in their musical experiment: "I haven't a clue what you're up to, but why the hell not?" The new band member didn't have much time to get to grips with BOOM PAM's repertoire, because their first foreign gig was already booked: Shantel, who had discovered the trio on one of his visits to Tel Aviv, had invited them to perform with him in Berlin. And so, as though they had been this sort of thing all their lives, they stormed the German State Opera House on the boulevard of Unter den Linden, transforming it into a hot and sweaty dance-fest that had the entire 800-strong audience on its feet. Producer Shantel was quick to recognise BOOM PAM's talent and he brought them along to shows in Frankfurt and Cologne. Wherever they performed, they really fired up the audience. In the Middle East they had already played the biggest venues and festivals. They headlined the opening of the Jerusalem Film Festival, creating a sizzling atmosphere at the legendary Sultan's Pool club for the premier of Emir Kusturica's latest film Life is a Miracle.
Following their work with Shantel, it is only logical for their debut album to be released on the Essay label. The recordings were made last year at the legendary Babylon Central Studio in Frankfurt using original 1964 Fender Twin Reverb amps. Sound engineer Marcus Darius helped to develop a classically warm, yet fresh and precise sound using old analogue reel-to-reel tape recorders, reverberators and generous helpings of vodka. "We met Shantel two years ago. With him and his label, we now hope to bring our music to as many people as possible all over the world."