In honor of Israel’s 65th Independence day, Round Trip Radio would like to offer a musical celebration of Israeli Independent artists. Here’s what we’ve been listening to lately:

Liner Notes

Ester Rada – Life Happens

Ester Rada is an Israeli soul singer who made her US debut at SXSW this year.  She played New York in March, and this summer she will be on tour in Europe.  Listen to her EP on Bandcamp, and check out this video of a live performance of Life Happens in the studios of Kol HaCampus.

Malka Spigel – Every Day Is Like The First Day

Malka Spigel was playing to European audiences since the 1980s when she was part of Minimal Compact.  Her guidelines for making an album: Don’t think too much. Forget the future. Start from nothing. Don’t look back. Step outside. Refresh the process. Roll the dice. Then roll again. Trust your instincts. Make a new beginning.

OX4 – Soul Tramping

Although they have a full album out now, we got turned on to OX4’s EP through Saar Gamzo, while he was station manager at Kol HaCampus. “Soul Tramping” from their 4 song demo has captivating fuzzy guitars paired with loud whispers.

The Black & Whites – I Am Samba

Arik Lavie was an Israeli singer and performer whose career spanned almost 7 decades from 1945 until his death in 2004. Every Israeli is familiar with his voice and his famous songs including The Red Rock (about Petra in Jordan), Nasser Is Waiting For Rabin (a folk song from the Six Day War), It Happens, I’ll Sing You A Song, and a cover of Frank Sinatra’s My Way.  He was such a good singer, they put him in movies, including the Golan-Globus produced Operation Thunderbolt about the rescue of Israeli hostages in Entebbe, where he played future Israeli Chief of Staff Dan Shomron.  In the American version of the film, the role of Dan Shomron was played by Charles Bronson, and featured Robert Loggia, James Woods and Yaphet Kotto as the most convincing Idi Amin until Forest Whitaker. But I digress. Kol HaCampus, Israeli college station and inspiration to Round Trip Radio did a tribute album to Arik Lavie featuring current Israeli indie stars, including our friends Sagol 59 and Uzi Ramierz.  You can listen to the whole album here. This track, “I Am Samba” by the Black and Whites is a play on words about a samba dancing woman who could care less about the man singing the song about her.  Saar Gamzo does the male vocals: is there anything this guy can’t do?

Ronen Green – Rooftop Blues

Ronen Green has been working on his first solo album for the past two years.  He expects to release it sometime soon.  The first single off his forthcoming album, “One Of These Days” is available as a free download on Bandcamp. I would not have found his music had he not done a live session for Kol 2 and 5, an analog music recording project from Mitzlol, a music studio, rehearsal space and production house.  The rules for Kol 2 and 5 are: All recordings must be performed live in one take (or two if there’s a technical problem.) All songs have to be original material.  No instrumentals, but otherwise, no limits on the type of music.  Recording is 100% analog on reel to reel tape.  With all that in mind, check out Ronen Green’s “Rooftop Blues.”

Lion Babe – Treat Me Right (Polar Pair Remix)

Polar Pair are back at it again, having released an eclectic and multi-faceted album this past year, they remixed Lion Babe – “Treat Me Right,” and have it available as a free download. It’s hard to categorize this kind of music into a genre, but “shoegaze disco” seems to be the closest we can get.