Abraham Inc goes "Tweet Tweet"

I'm totally digging the new Abraham Inc. album. It's a full on, head on, collision of klezmer, funk, and hip-hop music. Here's the blurb (I love blurbs.)

"An unprecedented collaboration between three cultural visionaries: DAVID KRAKAUER, champion of klezmer music and world-class clarinetist; legendary funk trombonist and arranger FRED WESLEY, celebrated for his work with James Brown and George Clinton; and hip-hop renegade and beat architect SOCALLED – Abraham Inc"

What underlies that blurb is a real depth of knowledge in each of the music styles, but what makes the album work the way in which Abraham Inc cleverly uses a very contemporary, stuttery, cut & paste, hip-hop oriented approach to the funk and klezmer merger. The hip-hop style breaks help deconstruct the two musical styles and reconstruct them as assembled fragments of the new compositions. In this collage of bouncing and popping fragments, it sounds totally natural to hear Socalled's Yiddish bounce against C-Rayz Walz's English raps or hear Krakuer's clarinet klezmer runs bounce against Wesley's horn sections.

Abraham Inc Tweet Tweet (Official Music Video)

While Tweet Tweet is the first single, and a worthy track, my favorite is the H-Tune, a reconstruction of "Yidlach Anthem" Hava Nagila. It's a great example of their style, Hava Nagila's melody is broken in to phrases all of which are layered on top of each other and over funk horns. What you end up with is NOT Hava Nagila, it takes some work to pull out the Hava Nagila phrases. What it is, is the H-Tune.

The H Tune (Hava Nagila)

For more info and to buy the album, check out the Abraham Inc. website and Facebook pages.

Hat tip to AliciaKraks for posting the H-Tune video (shot back in Feb 2010). AliciaKraks happens to be Alicia Krakauer, H-Tune vocalist and daughter of David Krakauer.

New Soulico Mixtape: Archeology- A Deep Dig Into Israeli Grooves

Talk about retro fabulous. I've got visions of yalmakas pinned onto grooving Jewfros and that sure is a beautiful thing. JDub Records and Soulico, the Israeli hip hop group, have just released a mixtape called Archeology: A Deep Dig Into Israeli Grooves. According to JDub....

"It's an hour full of Hasidic Disco, Spirutal Soul, Yamanite Funk, Turkish Acid Rock, Arabic Jazz & much more, all recorded & released in Israel by local musicians & artists in the 70's and early 80's. 95% of the tunes were never reissued on CD and were fairly obscure even when they originally came out. This is the result of a decade of digging in Tel-Aviv's record shops & Flea markets..

Download the Mixtape for FREE - DOWNLOAD"

Download the file now while it's available and get ready for some serious boogie.

Hat tip to the BlogInDm for letting me know about it.

The Teapacks - Israeli Afrobeat Jewish Punk

I've been feeling a bit stodgy lately. I've been blogging about a lot of great Jewish music, but a lot of it has been serious, or at least, meaningful stuff. I've had a long week and serious stuff is not what I need right now. I need to get back to basics (my basics, at any rate). I need some music that's big, crazy, cranky, and full of life.

(My 3 year old daughter just ran through the room singing "This is not what I want, this is NOT WHAT I PLAN" from High School Musical 2 at the top of her lungs. That qualifies too. Sort of.)

Fortunately, the Teapacks fit the bill. These guys bump, shuffle, and squawk with the best of them. They remind me of when I used to go to shows all the time and would slam, pogo, and otherwise do off-kilter punk boy dances to ska bands up from New York or Washington DC. Ska bands at a punk club were a beautiful thing. We all had an evening off from glowering (musically) at and slamming in to each other. This was our fun music.

And the Teapacks have got it down. They've got the grooves and attitude, the beat and they lyrics. Listen to the lead singer Kobi Oz ranting about leaders going to push the button (see below). It's as topical today as it was 20 years ago, though the leaders are different and the button is different. And ranting about it on stage with a good band at your back is still great street theater. C'mon everyone, maybe we won't change the world (we're not hippies, y'know) but at least we can look the world in its crummy grimey face. bump bump cue the horns.

Teapacks - "Push The Button" (Israel 2007)

I love the fact that Teapacks were Israel's entry to the Eurovision last year. What a great antidote to the insipid pop that usually floods the contest. You can find out more about the Teapacks at their myspace page and their website.

Hat tip to YouTube user EurovisionAndMore for posting the video. This video was just what I needed today.

David Krakauer's Abraham, Inc - Live at the Apollo

Ok, so I missed this one. It was another MMH show (many miles from here), so I wouldn't have been able to attend but what a cool line up. I saw Krakauer and Socalled here on the North Coast a while back, the addition of Fred Wesley is amazing. The Apollo website has more information and this great promo video. An album and concert DVD will be released eventually. Can't wait.

"Ever since I formed Klezmer Madness! in the mid 1990's I've been exploring the possibilities of adding funk, jazz and lately hip-hop influences to klezmer. Improvisation has always been a part of my musical landscape, but it was my embracing of klezmer music in my early 30's that gave me the opportunity to create my own style of improvising and composing within (and under the umbrella of ) the music of my own Eastern European Jewish cultural heritage.

...an all-out klezmer-funk dance party!
These explorations logically led me to my collaboration with Socalled, a kindred spirit in the search for that magic place where a combination of klezmer, funk, jazz and hip-hop can find a commonality of ecstatic trance. In a conversation with Socalled somewhere on the road in Europe in late 2005, the name Fred Wesley came up. Fred of course is world renowned as one of the great masters of funk through his amazing trombone playing and arranging with the likes of James Brown, Bootsy Collins, Parliament Funkadelic etc., etc . I felt that collaborating with Fred would be a tremendous (and logical) next step in this musical journey that I've been on for the last ten years. Much to my delight, Mr. Wesley accepted the proposal to join this path of musical exploration. -David Krakauer"

Update: I found some additional articles on Abraham Inc, including Weekend America, PRI's The World.

Here's the Weekend America interview.



Here's the interview from The World.



For more video's, YouTube has videos of Abraham, Inc. playing "Moskowitz and Loops of It" and "Tweet Tweet"

Related Post: "I just got back from seeing David Krakauer, Socalled, and Klezmer Maddness live"

Coolooloosh is coming

I got an email this weekend from the Israeli funk /hip hop band Cooloolosh, "a Jerusalemite word for celebration and joy,". They'll be hitting the US in early January for a tour and to record their new album. Fun sound. I particularly dig their track "Fight Rebel Sun." Check 'em out.

Coolooloosh Promo Movie


You can see more Coolooloosh videos at YouTube, and read reviews and check their concert schedule on their MySpace page.