Shuli Rand - Sweet Water

 

What a beautiful gem. Shuli Rand gives new life to Meir Ariel's very romantic song, which is part of a cabaret style show Rand has created centered around Ariel's songs. Get a sneak peak here. Don't miss the original!

My love is like the desert land
She doesn't give in easily if at all
To my plays, she is not an audience
Even though she already wants me
She rejects all attempts of courtship
And yet that is when I love her more

My love is like the desert land
She has clear and bright purity
So if I am a bit dirty
Even though she already wants me
She won't let me get near
And yet that is when I love her more

She doesn't like when I talk
She says that I tell lies
Even when silent
As if not being worth even a whistle

She surely does not forget
And still does not forgive
For long, long days
She would have left long ago
If she hadn't thought
That she would find sweet water in me

My love is like the desert land
Thorns and stings like a scorpion
Piercing deep to the bone like a chilly wind
Even though she already wants me
Leaves me dry to see if I will stay
And yet that is when I love her more

Folly Tree - Quicksand

Like many others, I was also quite shaken by David Bowie's death. When a friend told me the news it was still very fresh and I thought maybe it was a hoax just because it seemed so odd. David Bowie takes me back to middle school when I was just starting to form my musical taste, and when I was searching for music that made me feel something. I think I went from album to album on iTunes, picking my favorite songs and trying to download them from eMule, on the way learning about his different phases and styles. It's not a surprise that he appealed to outsiders, offering a colorful and alternative haven where you could be as strange as you pleased. I wasn't familiar with this precious track before I came across this collection of Bowie covers by indie Israeli artists, a true labor of love. I also wasn't familiar with Folly Tree, who have just released a fresh new single. Folly Tree presents a wonderful closer to the album with this track which highlights Bowie's intellectual curiosity covered with a comforting layer. I still don't completely get all the references, nor the overall meaning, but it's a song which makes you think and realize that there is always so much to learn. Rest in peace.

I'm closer to the Golden Dawn
Immersed in Crowley's uniform
Of imagery
I'm living in a silent film
Portraying
Himmler's sacred realm
Of dream reality
I'm frightened by the total goal
Drawing to the ragged hole
And I ain't got the power anymore
No I ain't got the power anymore

I'm the twisted name
on Garbo's eyes
Living proof of
Churchill's lies
I'm destiny
I'm torn between the light and dark
Where others see their targets
Divine symmetry
Should I kiss the viper's fang
Or herald loud
the death of Man
I'm sinking in the quicksand
of my thought
And I ain't got the power anymore

Don't believe in yourself
Don't deceive with belief
Knowledge comes
with death's release

I'm not a prophet
or a stone age man
Just a mortal
with the potential of a superman
I'm living on
I'm tethered to the logic
of Homo Sapien
Can't take my eyes
from the great salvation
Of bullshit faith
If I don't explain what you ought to know
You can tell me all about it
On, the next Bardo
I'm sinking in the quicksand
of my thought
And I ain't got the power anymore

Yair Ziv - Rain

For about 15 hours we were just like any other country celebrating the new year. As New Years Day isn't a national holiday over here, we don't get the next day off. But this year it fell on a Thursday meaning that most workers could sleep in late on Friday and then enjoy the festive weekend with the weekly get-together at a coffee shop or a pub, where Israelis who've worked hard the whole week can relax with friends over a coffee or beer before heading home for Shabbat dinner and beginning the weekend. But that all changed this Friday afternoon when an Arab-Israeli shot towards a crowded pub which was holding a birthday party and killed the manager and a participant: Alon Bakel, 26 and Shimon Ruimi, 30. At home, I watched the surreal images of armed police patrolling the quiet streets by Dizzengof and heard chilling testimonies from witnesses. One was from a woman who mainly remembers the big smile on the shooter's face and another was from a bus driver who said that the shooter took a shot also at him but luckily he was saved by the window. The driver dropped to the floor, not before opening the doors for the passengers so they could flee. I wondered if he had ever been in a situation like this before and if he was a bus driver during the last two intifadas. Like many others, I was also reminded of the deadly 1994 suicide bombing on bus no.5 in Dizengoff, which brought terror attacks in Israel to a new level and further distanced the possibility of peace. Maybe that's what's so depressing about Friday's attack. We wanted to start the new year with a fresh page but were reminded that the violence isn't going to end anytime soon. Of course that doesn't mean that we'll give up the weekly tradition of afternoon beer with friends, especially if it's a sunny day. #IAmTelAviv

Rain
Washing down the streets
Washing down the blood
Washing down the dead in me
Rain
Washing down the war
Don't need it anymore
Don't need the big old fighter planes

Children in my eyes
I want to be alive
I want to give them what they want
But if the night should fall
The moon will be so hole
I'll fall asleep and won't wake up again

Rain
Washing all the streets
Washing all the blood
Washing all the dead in me
Rain
Washing all the war
Don't need it anymore
Don't need the big old fighter planes

Whose hand is this
That's reaching out to me
And calling me out from the sea
But what if I should fall
And dive in with the whales
And just forget that I am even there
Rain

Take me to the sun outside
Lift me from this warriors land
I don't wanna wait too long
I don't wanna wait at all

Yair Ziv's single "Rain" comes at a perfect timing. Ziv expresses himself beautifully with his honest lyrics and emotional sound.

Hila Ruach - Grizzly Bear

Hila Ruach's fierce and sensitive "A doctor in the west" is one of my favorite albums from 2015 and what better way to end the year than with a clip for the first song off of it, based on a poem by Yona Wallach. 

"The clip was made out of love for horror movies and film noir classics, which also inspired me while making the album", Ruach notes. "It provides a revealing glimpse into the fears and innermost thoughts of daily life, including disconnected internet, well-known figures from the indie scene and sedatives".

A grizzly she-bear raised me
Milk from the stars was my main nourishment
The first thing I saw
In the days of my life meaning what I remember
Was how I would be able to forget

Iki Levi & Rasta Hebrew Man - Flying High

Feel-good roots reggae with a powerful message, Iki Levi & Rastra Hebrew Man is music for the body, mind & soul.

They're talking only about money,
Corrupting the government,
They don't know what it's like to live one day like us.
Distancing peace
It's a security fraud,
Life is short and what will we leave to our children?

I fly high in my dreams
I want to live like a king's son
Yes I fly high with thoughts
How do I change this situation?
Israel year two thousand and more...

Will not fly away,
Well mi na ever gonna fly away!

Israel year two thousand and more
She takes and gives, I don't have a hand in this
I can't do it! I can't promise...
For years I've been writing and speaking about it,
If we work hard we'll discover it,
I promise that then we'll make it...

I fly high in my dreams
I want to live like a king's son
Yes I fly high with thoughts
How do I change this situation?
Israel year two thousand and more...

Won't fly away,
Well mi na ever gonna fly away!

Life is short and what will we leave to our children?
Time is passing and there are more that will come after us.
Yes life is short and what will we leave our children?
Time is passing by and there are more moments,
In which I fly high...

Won't fly away,
Well mi na ever gonna fly away!

Ramle - Alternative Energy

I remember first hearing Ramle's "The Factory" as part of the excellent "Ohalim Adirim" mixtape which served as a musical soundtrack to the 2011 tent protest. Ramle certainly stood out with their sharp lyrics together with pure rock and roll. I love how in their second album their sound matured a bit, and so did they, but the honest and thought provoking lyrics still take center stage.

A critical person
What does he have in his life?
Even to himself
He tends not to believe
Honking to cars
Doesn't talk to people
Even with himself
He forgot how to be innocent

But there was a plan
Not to see every night the same menu
To continue sliding as if there is no bottom
To start using alternative energy

Over the years
He learned how to get smashed
And not be interested
In what there is behind curtain number three
Hugging the bridges
So he can go and come back
Even with himself
He doesn't remember how to stop

And he hasn't found another island
To take his last belongings
To stop reacting to what they're saying
To start using alternative energy

When I was young, I loved the winter, because I thought it was easy to find warmth.

Eyal Even Tzur - Three Floors

Eyal Even Tzur says of this autobiographical love song that it is about the happy moment in which you realize that you have found your life partner. Gili Shaanan created the stunning clip and Shahar Even Tzur composed the music. Pure and beautiful.

Another turn of the key
You come home
A long day the shoes are tight
Empty talks about war
And noise
Everyone knows everything
Only you were waiting to come home

I love how your heart beats after three floors
Take my bag from me and give me your arms
I'm giving you, come and fall on me
At the end of every day

On the sand on Sunday
We talked without thinking
Funny feet
On the yellow set against the blue
It's important to take ourselves to a far away place
To get closer
I'll build sand castles for you

I love how your heart beats after three floors
Take my bag from me and give me your arms
I'm giving you, come and fall on me
At the end of every day