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 accurate observation of reality, in which not everything is rosy and bright, making the song even more interesting. Sivan Talmor is relatively unknown, even though 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

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 video 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 I 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, Guedj was part of the highly respected band Algiers with Gabriel Belachsan. Here's a video 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 their debut album for free on Bandcamp, just because I thought why not. I was immediately won over by this song, it just got under my skin and refused to leave me. Fresh is an understatement here because although it sounds very 2012 with its 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

Russo & Weinberg - All This Love

Wow, this song just keeps getting better and better every time I hear it again. Beautiful harmonies and perfect for an autumn afternoon, it was so lovely and warm today, but now it's chilly and dark at five, and I just realized that tomorrow it'll be December... Anyway, I really love Erez Russo and Adi Weiberg's acoustic sound. Help them out with their debut album here.

Don't say it darling, cause you'll fake it
Don't hide the tears, cause I know you're breaking

All this love and all this pain you've given
All this love and all this pain
You bring them from another world.

Another tear just burst from the side of your eye
And I know what you're saying and I know it's a fucking lie

All these words, damn lies
All this pain in those fine fine eyes

All this love and all this pain you've given
All this love and all this pain
You bring them from another world.

Now the summer lies on my doorstep
And outside there's a lie and it's getting bigger and you know it

All this love, damn lies
All this pain in those fine fine eyes

All this love and all this pain you've given
All this love and all this pain
You bring them from another world.
https://www.facebook.com/RussoWeinberg

Oren Barzilay - Bitter Moon

What an exhausting week. This morning I felt that I had so much to say about the cease-fire, about the international media, about everything really, but it was all based on emotion. And as the day passed and the quiet settled in, reason began to take over, and my common sense is telling me that no matter what I say, it won't really change anything. What's done is done, and now we have to live with the results in the best possible way. I'm sick of the news, and I'm happy that my friends have gone back to posting silly pictures and songs that don't have anything at all to do with the situation. I still find myself checking the feed to see if anything has happened, especially after I hear ambulance sirens, especially since yesterday's bomb attack. But things are much calmer, even if people are still tense because of the lack of closure. We just kind of put things on hold until the next round, and it's really only a matter of time before the rockets start drizzling again. So I want to enjoy this temporary quiet to (try to) relax, and Oren Barzilay's new song is perfect for this. At first, I wasn't digging the high vocals, but the song has really grown on me, and I can't imagine it sung differently. It's very dream-like and reminds me of those magical hours before the day begins, and reality takes over.

Scratches like a lion bites like a fighting dog
Loves like a prince, a boy in love
Drinks the air is if there will be no tomorrow

Eyes closed hands as delicate as fur
A stranger's sad sun
Another bitter moon and it's over

Quiet like he knows, his soul is addictive
A beautiful sparkle rises, dazzling beauty
Barking like a hungry man, a pain that saws through

Eye's closed hands as delicate as fur
A stranger's sad sun
Another bitter moon and it's over

https://www.facebook.com/OrenBarzilayART

Walkaways - Skyfall

 

Yesterday at 16:30, my biggest worry was how I was going to finish 8 chapters of a book I had to read and 3 critical essays in 10 hours. By 17:00 after the news of the killing of Ahmed Jabari, the head of all armed forces of Hamas, and many deadly attacks on Israel, including Gilad Shalit's kidnapping, I was packing my bags, wondering if I'd be able to make it to the Beer Sheva train station before the rockets started to fall. There had been an escalation since Sunday, when 4 soldiers were seriously injured in an attack on their jeep near the Gaza border. The IDF struck back, and on that day 45 rockets hit southern Israel, including two in Beer Sheva. I wasn't in the city on that day, but I understood from friends that as scary as it was, it had become something normal. University went on as usual, and when I came on Monday, there was more fuss about the rare and heavy rainfall than the rockets, which were already old news. A few weeks ago, I had a discussion with some friends on whether to live in a city where occasional rockets are a normal thing that just happen, or to undergo an operation in Gaza in which all of the cities of the south are under heavy fire, but afterwards there's quiet and normality. It's a pretty tough call to make, but from what I've heard in the last few months (and years actually) and what I've felt yesterday and today it seems that the citizens of the South have decided that after 12 years and 12,000 rockets enough is enough and they're willing to endure non-stop sirens and trips to bomb shelters (or in most cases the stairways) if it means that there will be the possibility of living a quiet and normal life in the near future. At least a more normal life.

The up-and-coming Walkaways made an amazing cover of Adele's hit. It's so powerful and emotional, and it's also great metal, something I find a bit hard to find!
 http://www.facebook.com/Walkways

This is the end
Hold your breath and count to ten
Feel the earth move and then
Hear my heart burst again

For this is the end
I’ve drowned and dreamt this moment
So overdue I owe them
Swept away, I’m stolen

Let the sky fall
When it crumbles
We will stand tall
Face it all together

Let the sky fall
When it crumbles
We will stand tall
Face it all together
At skyfall
At skyfall

Skyfall is where we start
A thousand miles and poles apart
Where worlds collide and days are dark
You may have my number, you can take my name
But you’ll never have my heart

Let the sky fall
When it crumbles
We will stand tall
Face it all together

Let the sky fall
When it crumbles
We will stand tall
Face it all together
At skyfall

[2x]
(Let the sky fall
When it crumbles
We will stand tall)

Where you go I go
What you see I see
I know I’d never be me
Without the security
Of your loving arms
Keeping me from harm
Put your hand in my hand
And we’ll stand

Let the sky fall
When it crumbles
We will stand tall
Face it all together

Let the sky fall
When it crumbles
We will stand tall
Face it all together
At skyfall

Let the sky fall
We will stand tall
At skyfall