CD Review: Chaim Israel - The ultimate crossover artist

Chaim Israel is, in my opinion, the ultimate crossover artist. About half of his new album Someone to Rely On is smooth, light, slow songs based on Psalms and other religious sources. I could see each one being played on a contemporary pop station. The other tracks on the album are fast paced and exciting with a Mediterranean beat.

Chaim Israel has previously released similar sounding albums as well as albums of only Mizrachi and Yemenite music. On this new one he also has that typical twangy oud, Middle Eastern sounding horns and other Mizrachi elements. Some tracks are in the Mizrachi style alone while others mix that sound with an electronic dance beat. The title track incorporates a klezmer sounding clarinet and has an "oy yoi yoi" chorus laid over a dance beat, but the breakdown in the middle is Mizrachi sounding. I played it on my show this week. Another track has a chant of "na nach nachman me uman". 

I love that combination of styles. It reminds me a little of a hit from 2004 by Subliminal's TACT All Stars featuring HaTzel (The Shadow) called At Oti Shofetet which mixes Mizrachi singing and oud with rapped verses, hip-hop record scratches and a reggae chorus. 

Another Chaim Israel favorite of mine is Rak Elokim from his album Words of Prayer. He also has a couple Yiddish songs on other albums. 

The relatively young singer is a religious Israeli of Mizrachi / Sephardic background. He is a best seller at Gal Paz and other religious music stores in Israel. In the past couple months he has also released a two disc set of live tracks.

Non-Jewish musicians who love Israel - Sabaton, iTunes

Here is an email I received about Sabaton, who recently performed here in Israel and had a nice article about them in the Jerusalem Post.

Topic: Heavy metal 'hasbara'

Hi Ben, Have you ever played this music on The Beat (I ask rhetorically)? Being 64 years old, it's not my type of music but when I read the lyrics, I was sold. If you do play this song, however, I would advise first reading the lyrics to the listening audience (in your best poet-reading voice). ;-) I also just came across Sabaton's "In The Name of God" at The lyrics are embedded in the video itself. Hmmm, I wonder if Walter would feed you chocolate for these two songs. Bet you he would! You might even turn him into a heavy-metal fan!

Regards, Gary (Gershon)
Calgary, Alberta, Canada



Well, Gershon, I also just discovered Sabaton, and enjoyed their song Counterstrike which praises Israel's victory in the Six Day War. Here is one of the several videos for it (another one has lyrics). I'm actually disappointed that I never heard of them before because I was proud of the fact that I knew every obscure pro-Jewish song by non-Jewish artists. And now it seems one has slipped by my radar. So here is my new Israel National Radio iTunes iMix in which I tracked down as many as I could. The current iMix includes both non-Jewish musicians, musicians of Jewish heritage in the mainstream world, and Israeli musicians. I am in the process of making several iMixs. If you can think of any more or have any iTunes suggestion, let me know.

CD Review: Yeedle - Lev Echad - Holocaust, MBD and more

I used to do a radio show with Tzvi Turner who turned me on to a lot of hasidic pop. Because Tzvi lived in New York, he personally knew a lot of the top performers such as Shloime Dachs, Mendy Wald and Yosi Piamenta. I thought for sure a guy named Yeedle could never be cool. But as soon as Tzvi played the first couple seconds of Yeedle IV, I liked it. It was like a mix of acoustic guitar and hasidic pop. Catchy and cool. You can listen Tzvi's show at http://jewishcommunityradio.org/

Today I saw a bus in Jerusalem with a big ad for Yeedle's 5th album. It's enjoyable. Not too complicated. Very listenable. One track is a slow song in Yiddish. Most of the album is in the same upbeat, fast danceable, catchy style with a horn section, some sprinkles of electric guitar and some light electronic beats. But mostly the good old tried and true hasidic pop you know and love. The stuff pioneered by Yeedle's father, Modechai Ben David.

Yeedle's grandfather, David Werdyger (also spelled Dovid) is a well known cantor and has released several popular records. Although I never heard of David Werdyger growing up, when I listened to one of his albums I recognized many of the melodies from synagogue and the Shabbat table. David has an interesting story of how he was saved in the Holocaust by a song. It can be read here: http://heichalhanegina.blogspot.com/2007/04/saved-in-holocaust-by-song.html

One last comment on the new Yeedle album. The cover has this moving image thing. It's like a hologram or something. I thought it was so cool, I went around the radio station showing it to everyone (and interrupting the news anchors). But I can't figure out what exactly to call it. Is it a hologram? Or what? Whoever can give me the correct technical name of it wins a free CD. You can email me at bbresky@israelnationalradio.com.