The Four Fathers of Israeli Independent Music

Happy Fathers Day!

In honor of the holiday, we want to recognize Four Fathers of Israeli Independent music: Aris San, Shem-Tov Levy, Kutiman and the Mixmonster.  Not to say that these men are fathers in the parental sense, but rather innovative men who inspire and influence other artists to make great music.  These four men represent the past, present and future of Israeli music.

Aris San:

In 1957, a 17 year old Greek musician named Aristidis Saisanas sailed to Israel, and on his way changed his name to Aris San. He started playing his unique mediterranean surf rock in Tel Aviv nightclubs and by the time he was 20 he developed strong connections to the political leaders of the time, including Moshe Dayan and Ariel Sharon. Somehow, through these connections, he was granted Israeli citizenship even though he was not Jewish. The musical style of this outsider became an central part of the identity of Israeli music. In the years since his apparent death, his music entered the cannon of Israeli music and has a strong influence over current Israeli musicians. His song Boom Pam is still covered by nightclub singers in Tel Aviv.

Shem Tov Levy:

Shem Tov Levy is the child of Bulgarian immigrants who settled in Rehovot.  He might not have made the Independent list because of his significant contributions to Israeli mainstream pop as a producer and musician on a few Arik Einstein albums.  In the 1970s, Shem Tov set out to make a new style of music influenced by jazz, Bulgarian, and classical music. He was involved in a number of progressive rock groups including Ktzat Acheret (A Little Different or No Names), Tuned Tone and Sheshet. Sheshet was composed of 6 top-notch Israeli musicians who lost money on the recording of their only album which is considered a classic today.  Shem Tov’s music has recently been sampled and reinterpreted by Cohenbeats in his recent release Milk and Honey. Over the decades, Shem Tov has managed to fulfill his dream proven by his 2007 album Stations, and his current work, taking Jewish spiritual poetry written in Medieval Spain and setting it to music.

From the Sheshet album, here’s Clappers:

Kutiman:

Ophir Kutiel better known as Kutiman invented an art form by mixing unrelated YouTube videos into new songs. His ThruYou project has been admired and imitated by other artists, like Gotye who made a Kuti-style mash up of other people people covering his song Somebody That I Used To Know.  Since then Kutiman’s gone Thru Jerusalem and Krakow and mixed about 30 years of Israeli nostalgia in just over 4 minutes.  And this is all after he produced a critically acclaimed and totally funky self titled album.

From Thru-You here’s The Mother of all Funk Chords

Mixmonster:

Uri Wertheim, or Mixmonster is a multifaceted DJ and producer. Uri, and his Radio Trip, Apples and Audio Montage partner Ofer Tal, have been digging up old recordings from 1960s Israeli ethnic labels Koliphone and Zakiphone, dusting them off and playing them for new audiences around the world including an upcoming performance at the Festival of Jewish Culture in Krakow this summer. Uri is inspired by Tony Schwartz — a pioneering sound engineer who carried around a tape recorder in New York in the 1950s and recorded sounds like homeless people singing, children playing games and rainfall in Manhattan. Uri prefers to use analog recording while producing music for great bands like, Left, The Ramirez Brothers and Monti Fiori.

Here’s a 6 minute video presentation of music presented by Uri and Ofer  Pecha Kucha night in Tel Aviv.

And just to bring this all together, here’s a video produced by Kutiman of Boom Pam, a tuba driven surf rock band produced by Uri Wertheim.