Ligion Hazarim-Time

I was about to post this week's song yesterday-I had everything ready but suddenly the selected song didn't match up at all with my mood so I decided to wait and post the next day. I also felt that maybe I was missing something so this morning I skimmed over the 'Oneg Shabat' and came across Ligion Hazarim (the Foreign Legion)'s brand new album. Guy from Oneg wrote: "It's hard to say that I'm thrilled about all of the musical/producing choices of Ligion Hazarim, an Israeli band that released just now their debut album, A Man Sliced to Slices, but I can't remain cynical or indifferent to this album. It has beauty, honesty, simplicity (which isn't necessarily simplification) and an almost complete lack of cynicsm which I totally dig. Listen in Bandcamp, it's all there". How could I not be intrigued by this grand introduction? Before I even began listening I took note of the album's official introduction:

"Hello dear listener,

The album in your hand contains pieces of a torn heart and divided mind.
It was written on days in which the darkness was much greater than the light and the hidden over the apparent.
I left my new home
And my old God
And I went out in search of salvation
Wherever it may be.

Between the sounds in its songs, you can hear a man coming out for the second time from the warm womb to cold night air.

Udi."

Just from these lines you can indeed feel the complete lack of cynicism, as well as honesty and beauty. I first intended to translate just the opening song but each song here is so unique and the album must be heard from start to finish so I ended up translating* all of the songs, which are really poems. Unlike Guy, I think the music and production choices give this album a magic touch, making it a strong contender for one of the best albums of the year. I was delighted to discover that the band sounds just as great live and it is well worth listening to their live recording "Live and Bleeding at Levontin 7". One of my favorites from there, The Curtain Fell, even has its own very recently released live clip.

1. Time

Time does with me what he wants to, running his fingers through my hair
Time registers his movement driving his lips on my neck.

Days pass
Nights arrive
And roots deepen.

Time does with me what he wants to, setting the pace of my heart
Time carries his prayers, moving my mind like a big wave.

Days pass
Nights arrive
And roots deepen
Deepen.

2. A man sliced to slices

If you'll only lift up your eyes to see
You'll see here a man sliced to slices
Dressed with carelessness
Going into details
A vagabond and a clown
A rich man or your beggar
This way or that.

If you'll only send hands to touch
I'll be ready to disappear without knowing
The taste of the tree
Or the taste of the fruit
Which came first
Your death or my life or my death

Si seulement tu levais les yeux pour voir
Tu verrais un homme fabrique de parcelles
Habille de n'importe quoi
Decortiquant ses penses
clown et Vagabond
Riche ou mendicant
Tour a tour

3. Flower girl

Between the 60s and 70s a flower girl with gold in her hair
A backpack on her back and a smile on her face, looking for the autumn
A thousand fields, one hundred songs are playing in her head, for her they sing
Now.

Between yesterday and tomorrow, the day that passed, the cold night
And in the open window, comes the wind, calls the familiar field
A thousand days, a hundred years are waiting for her, to laugh and to cry
With them.

4. In the Asylum #2

This is the beginning of a perfect evening, he is in black she is in white
A full moon here and there a few stars,
This is going to be a night of once in a lifetime.

In the blood wedding there are four participants
The groom the bride the rabbi and God, and the ministering angels in the role of the band
Playing for them a waltz...

And then in the honeymoon, they knit themselves clothes from blood and straw
Losing themselves again and again finding
That's how it is when you love.

They build themselves a house of gold from peels of oranges
And plant in the garden new old books,
And farm with milk and farm,
And wait and farm and wait,
Living at night sleeping in the day
Living at night sleeping in the day.

And then when they finished singing all the songs, they locked the door and went up to the office
Of the Creator
Placed the keys on the table and took off their clothes
And stood naked like two kids, only them and the Creator.

"How was it?" he asked, and they stood laughing
He climbed on a chair and took down from the closet two glowing crowns
And placed them on their heads and said with his impressive voice
"That's how it is when you love"

5. The Darkness

Two riders on a dirt road, into the night which has broken
Towards rest, in the darkness.
Two much too beautiful girls, thinking maybe, they will find for themselves love here,
In the darkness.

Nothing will be as it already was
Nothing will seem as it already appeared to be
Before the arrival, of the darkness.

Two wanderers by the fire, which in a minute will die out
Falling into sleep
In the darkness.
And the young widow, she is crying into her pillow
Her man left her and went
Into the darkness.
Nothing will be as it already was
Nothing will seem as it already appeared to be,
Before the arrival, of the darkness.

6. The Jewish State to Where

And the Arabs will tile and the Chinese will floor and the Romanians will paint
And another building will rise
In the Jewish State to where.

If you will it, it is no dream, it reminds me of a joke
Of a man with a beard standing on an old bridge
The lost time is crucified to a pole
In the synagogue they are collecting another minyan, for glory
The Jewish State to where.

All of the homeland heroes, the cultural figures
The Palmach club the pen and the gun
Retired with the diminishing generations
And scattered to here and to there
In the Jewish State to where.

If you'll touch the cold stone, it will give you chills
It will scratch at the threshold of consciousness
And a small note will fall on your head, you will open it and read a question instead of a wish
On the simple paper, in a little boy's handwriting:
"The Jewish State to where?"

7. Yoni

A hot night in a foreign town, singing Dylan during guard duty
Like the cigarettes in the mouth, burning.
With the weapons the uniforms looking like two children
Caught in war.
And you say "As soon as this ends I'm outta here, I'm not staying
My heart is calling to the distances"
While around us there is shelling, both of us talk quietly
Of a summer of love

Only your brown eyes
Are saying from a photograph
That you're coming right away.
You just went to grab yourself a corner
On the wings of the divine presence
You beautiful child

On the banks of the Dan River are sitting, two freshly discharged soldiers,
With feet in the flowing water.
While on the side lie backpacks prepared and ready
Towards a new life.

Only your brown eyes
Are saying from a photograph
That you're coming right away.
You just went to grab yourself a corner
On the wings of the divine presence
You beautiful child.

And now when you are close, to the chair of honor
Rest your mind
And know only peace and quiet, and rest in peace
You beautiful child.

8. Pure

Teach me knowledge, teach me pain.
Teach me to see, everything around
Teach me fire, teach me frost
Teach me heat which comes from the cold.

Let me into the secret of things
Let me into the shadows
Make me pure
From cheap sins.
Let me into the secret of things
Let me into the shadows
Make me pure
Of unclean things.

Make me a sign, so I'll stay
And here I'll turn, and the moment passes
Make me a sign, so I'll remember
The light that was from inside me burning

Let me into the secret of things
Let me into the shadows
Make me pure
From cheap sins.
Let me into the secret of things
Let me into the shadows
Make me pure
Of unclean things.

9. Land of Gold Fire

With time my eyes close, and see less and less.
With time my skin peels, my blood changes, into other blood.
I don't remember, where I'll go, where I'll drag myself to when the day will be over.
I don't have medication for the liquid pain, for the passing sadness, for the rising sadness.

So I'll call to the sea which will rise
To the light which will be revealed
To the light which will be revealed.

When the sun will set I'll get down from the mountain
And come to a lake at the end of the world.
And wash my clothes my face my feet
Which have been filled in dust which my pain has risen
And I'll know the quiet at the end of the storm
And I'll hear the sound that's after the silence.

So I'll call to the sea which will rise
To the light which will be revealed
To the light which will be revealed.

Lands of gold fire
I'm coming now
I'm coming now
I'm coming now

10. Coal

I opened my eyes to see
And here all the gold has become
Coal

*open to corrections

Hacabinet-You'll get fired

"Were you unjustly fired? Is your boss riding you? Do you feel as if you're passing through your life from one failure to another? Well, so do we.
Come see the story of Or "Orko" Cohen from the band "Hacabinet", which has created a rare and fascinating document regarding the Israeli labour market.
"Remarkably accurate"-The Times
"If you don't empathize with this, you've probably never been a failure"-The Guardian
"A fascinating human document"-Haaretz
"Denigrates Olmert. We like it!"-Israel Today
"In any case nobudy reads us"-Maariv

This is how "Hacabinet" introduced their latest clip on facebook and it really says it all about the band. I love their infusion of catchy riffs, candid lyrics and perfect comic timing (it also doesn't hurt to have a very charismatic lead singer). Oh, there's an Israeli phrase called "big head"- it's not about having an inflated ego but rather going the extra mile, doing more than the minimum hence "enlarging your head"-I'm pretty sure it's derived from Army slang but it's a very common phrase, especially in the work force...

You'll get fired
If you won't wake up
I'm not interested at all
There's nothing to talk about
Because it's the minimum
That I ask for

You'll get fired
If you won't show personal responsibility
It seems trivial to me
There's nothing to talk about
Because it's not much
That I ask for

You'll get fired
If you won't enlarge your head a bit
It seems to me a legitimate request
To enlarge your head a bit
Because it's the minimum
That I ask for

Look at yourself
Look at you
Pull yourself together
Look yourself in the eye
Look at you
I think you
Should be ashamed
Of yourself

(Now listen)

Get out of my office
And go away, go
"No no Yaakov, don't touch him Yaakov"
Because it's the minimum
That I ask for

Hacabinet's clips are so awesome that I just had to share these two: This one is a stark criticism on music reality culture at the expense of real music. How is this not viral?



"Who will flush the water first?"

I'm sick of stars being born
You've made the music cheap entertainment for the masses
I don't want to hear a panel of judges
It's not music
When standing in front of you are judges

I don't want to hear life stories
Peppery, twisted, adjusted
I don't want to hear how they're destroying the songs I love
Cutting, editing and shouting at us

Give us the music back!

I'm sick of stars
You've choked already all of the young artists
From above only pushing and shoving
But it doesn't help
You're not playing on everyone

I don't want to hear vocal pyrotechnics
I don't want to hear Aviv and Sarit
I don't want to hear how they're destroying the songs I love...

Give us the music back!

And one day a new program-
Thirteen contestants,
One toilet
Who will flush the water first?

The young generation
Is getting idiotic
Getting idiotic
Getting idiotic

And this is a very sweet love song for...black coffee. So Israeli in the best way.



"Strong like a man, bitter like life"

In a complicated, branched, confusing reality
You need one reliable source of light
When it's dark, foggy, murky and unclear
You need a place where you can return to

He pumps my blood, he grows a beard for me
He lights the way for me when it's dark
Like the fire and the wheel, he keeps me alive
He's the difference between us and animals

Let it sink
And not cool down

He dissolves my anger
He is worth my sweat
He's a cure for all sadness and pain

He's a port in the storm
He's a substitute for a girl
He's always available hot and receiving

Let it sink and not cool down