Sivan Talmor-Windows

What a great song to end the year with! You can't help but smile and whistle along to it. It's very upbeat and light but the lyrics are a pretty acurate observation of reality, in which not every thing is rosy and bright, making the song even more interesting. Sivan Talmor is relatively unknown even though (apparently) she was on The Voice, but something tells me that 2013 will be her year. Here's to new discoveries and fresh starts!

Windows windows like a gallery of silhouettes
Spread all over in this city.
And rows and rows of hopes and dreams
Run in this city.
The time slips through fingers
And there is nowhere to run,
From this race which just gets harder
There's no strength left.

Between walls and beams sighs peel ceilings
In this city.
And doors open
And the next day suddenly shut,
And without seeing...
The time slips through fingers
And there is nowhere to run,
From this race which just gets harder
There's no strength left

Windows windows
Dreams dreams...
And rows and rows
Dreams dreams

http://sivantalmor.com/

Nadav Azulay and Gil Nemet-From the Earth

So the end of the world came and went and of course nothing serious happened-except for
a crazy thunderstorm which vanished as quickly as it arrived. So mankind (probably) isn't going to be extinct anytime soon. Whew! However one thing that I'm always hearing about which is in danger of becoming extinct is rock music. Not shoegaze, electro, folk, acoustic, etc... just pure well written and well played rock music. I personally don't think it'll ever be extinct-just harder to find. This sounds at first like a pretty simple song but then I realized how it's been quite a while since I heard something like this-and it really shouldn't be that way. Azulay released an excellent debut album in '09: http://nadavazulay.bandcamp.com/ and he's also a Beer Sheva based producer for local artists. He's been performing with Gil Nemet for quite a while and they sound great together. It's hard to put my finger on it but there is a Beer Sheva feel to their sound-maybe it's in its humble yet very powerful sound and lyrics, maybe because it's just a good song without being too fashionable, I'm not really sure. In any case it's a very good song and a brilliant clip (featuring some Beer Sheva celebs) you'll want to watch 36 times (in full screen!).

It's not that we didn't check
We were careful
There was a perfect plan
Without blocks
Even in the sky you discover holes
At once
Burn the bridges

From the missing words I could conclude
While we argued we could have succeeded
It's no longer pleasant to be silent
But how do I stop?
A ring in my ears alerts

And in replay look back on everything that happened
Another great breath of fuel
Close your eyes
Swallow your tongue
Tonight you won't go to sleep

From the earth
From the depths of the forest
I'm arriving
I'm arriving
Standing on the wall
And holding on to the gate
I'm arriving
I'm arriving

http://www.facebook.com/pages/%D7%A0%D7%93%D7%91-%D7%90%D7%96%D7%95%D7%9C%D7%90%D7%99-%D7%95%D7%92%D7%99%D7%9C-%D7%A0%D7%9E%D7%98/147190538660445

Aviv Guedj-My faith plays at night

When I first heard this song this afternoon I was really amazed by its beauty and tenderness and knew that I wanted to write about it. I just heard it again right after reading about the horrific Connecticut school shooting and felt that I really had to write about it. The lyrics and melody are so moving especially in light of the tragic events, especially the line "we promised to be very strong, but not today". Only when I saw Obama's moving and teary speech did I really comprehend what had happened because it's just so hard to believe. The melody of the song really invites one to take off that formal and protective mask and just give in and sway with the violin letting the tears fall and slowly begin to heal and recover.
Here is the official single and here is Aviv's superb debut album. Before performing solo to sold out and devoted crowds Gedge was part of the highly respected band Algiers with Gabriel Belachsan. Here's a clip from the mid 90's.

My faith plays at night
Between the box of tears and an empty bed
Poets searched for a word and found an abyss

My faith plays at night
She waited here all day for long hours
My faith doesn't need a lot of space
She sleeps under the bridge, walks in the yards
And when she plays you can suddenly breathe
And hear and see.

Leave the city without saying goodbye
You'll come back anyways
Come child, come child
We promised to be very strong
But not today.

My faith gets rid of the coldness
Restores the time to the past
And soon we'll fall on each others necks
And the dawn will rise.

My faith disappears at day
An orphan like justice crawling
On the walls
My faith plays at night.

https://www.facebook.com/avivgedj

Phototaxis - Fire

I first came across Phototaxis a while ago when they gave away (and still are) their debut album for free on bandcamp, just because I thought why not. To say the truth I wasn't hugely impressed with the album except for a few songs which came to become favorites: Lamb, Somewhere and Alone. Maybe I should give the rest of the album another chance because you do need to let the unique songs grow on you. But this song was different and I was immediately won over-it just got under my skin and refused to leave me. Fresh is an understatement here because although it sounds very 2012 with it's electronic vibes, I'm sure it'll sound just as great and possibly even better in the years to come.

http://phototaxis.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Phototaxis