So as I said in the previous post. I wrote up a really great review of this CD and didn’t save it properly (I take the blame even though it was really Blogger’s fault) and I lost the entire thing. It’s so hard to rewrite an entire review, but I’m going to try. Here it goes, from scratch.

…. but first some pre-hashing.

I first became aware of Eitan Katz from the Blog Seraphic Secret. If you never read this post you should, it’s not too long but it’s VERY touching. Eitan played a private concert for Robert’s son. He later sent them a CD with a song on it that was going to later appear on his solo CD. The song is available in that post, download it and enjoy, it’s an amazing song. It’s L’maancha, the title track of Eitan’s solo debut (mini-reviews here and here.)

Since that CD, Eitan’s brother Shlomo Katz, also released a solo CD. The CD is titled V’Hacohanim, I have reviewed it here. They are both great CD’s and are both highly recommended.

Since those solo CD’s, Eitan and Shlomo both appeared on MoChassid’s excellent CD Ushmuel Bekorei Shmo, (review here) which if you don’t own it yet and like this sort of music, you must get now. Eitan and Shlomo also first appeared together (prior to these albums) on an album titled Biglal Avos. I don’t have this CD but I really should get it at some point.

One last thing before I start the review of the actual CD. I think it’s important for people to know that not all Jewish rock CD’s are the same. There are very different styles and sounds and for those people who like the mainstream Avraham Fried or MBD albums, you should know Eitan’s overall style is in some ways (I said, some, please don’t flame me in the comments) closer to that style then the heavy sounds of something like the Moshav Band or Soulfarm or even Blue Fringe (which is not heavy, but still traditionally more of a rock sound). Eitan and Shlomo (along with Nochi) are what I might call Shiny Shoe Rock, but without the negative connotation that the term carries. It’s clean, aidel, heartzig, soulful and harmless. Just think R’ Shmuel Brazil … on steroids. (Oh dear, an angel somewhere probably just lost its wings from that comparison.)

…. and now onto the CD.

Eitan Katz writes in the CD booklet that this is a collection of rare and previously unrecorded R’ Shlomo Carlebach Niggunim. Eitan is a great choice to record such a project. R’ Shlomo’s Niggun are so special and it’s a shame to hear sometimes how they are redone. When I think about that Ohad-Kinderlach version of Niggun Neshama I cringe, it’s like drinking expensive 30 year old wine out of a blue plastic disposable cup. It’s just wrong. Eitan brings the respect and aidelkeit that these songs deserve.

The first song Yisboroch Shimcha does a great job of setting the pace of the album. It doesn’t have a too long of an intro, it just jumps right into it. There is a great rhythm to this album and it starts with this song. The percussion and the guitar are done really well and the choir sounds great. It’s one of the best songs on the album.

The next song is called Shuvi Nafshi and would classify as the first “slow” song on the album. This is a great example of a beautiful song that I’ve never heard before that turns out to be a R’ Shlomo tune. It’s sometimes just shocking how many amazing first rate songs R’ Shlomo actually composed. There is a great (but too short!) musical interlude about 2 and a half minutes into the song. This song and the first one are two of my favorites on the album.

Track 3 is titled Al Tira. I’ve always loved these lyrics, and I love this song. I vaguely remember that I knew this was a R’ Shlomo song. Maybe it’s just my mind playing tricks, but it does sound slightly familiar. The song is a great example of why Eitan was just the guy for this type of CD. There are points during this song where Eitan really gets into it. You can really hear from both the music and the vocals that there is so much heart and soul in this song (and the cd in general.) Listen for some awesome Violin work about 2 minutes into the song.

Barcheinu Avinu is a song that I actually did recognize. Turst me when I say I’m not R’ Shlomo expert, so I have to assume that this is one of the more well known Niggunim on this album. During parts of this song Eitan really channels R’ Shlomo. The song has a great beginning, middle and end. It’s a drop slow at the beginning, but it picks up very quickly. By the end it has a really freilach happy vibe. It’s a beautiful song, pay special attention to the instrumentals on this one.

Track number 5 is Gam Ki Eilech. This song also starts a bit slow, and again, once it picks up it also really starts rocking. It’s an easy to remember Niggun which is ironic, because I’ve never heard this and I think this is one of the rarer tunes on the album. There are some light duets on this song which sound good.

This next song has become my favorite song on the album. Ma Tovu starts off the deep sounds of what I think is a Cello (Frank Lider) and works itself into some beautiful flute (Jeff Gruber) work and sets up the brilliant musical production that goes into this song. The Niggun itself is stunning and really sounds great. This song is the perfect package and it’s obvious that a lot of work went into it.

The production level on this song is on par with top tier productions in Jewish music. It also features some really Heartzig duets. It doesn’t say who is singing with him on the song, but additional vocals on the album are credited to Nathan Franco, Gershon Braun, Dovid Silverberg and another great artist Nochi Krohn. (You can read my review of Nochi’s CD here, which is another outstanding album.) I loved this song so much that now, while I’m listening to it for the review, I stopped writing, and listened to it a second time.

What follows is more great duet action. The next song is is called V’sechazena and features Eitan and Shlomo together. They sound great together (another duet album!!??) and just plays out so well. Everything really comes together in this song. It not just the standard dueting, there is a lot of cute shtick, that works well. There is some fiddling in there I believe too. The entire song is just so much fun. I love it, it’s a great freilach song, that could easily translate into the mainstream like Niggun Neshama and Niggun Nevo have.

The next song is Ki Lishuascha, and after so many amazing songs, I guess one had to disappoint. It’s not a bad song, it’s done nicely, but I just don’t know if the Niggun is fleshed out well. Maybe it is, but it’s just so out there that it doesn’t click right. I guess some songs are rarely heard for a reason. Still the music and vocals on this song are great.

Oidcha has an interesting to feel to it, it depends on what mood I’m in when I listen to it. Either I love it or I hate it. Parts of it sound very Lanzbom’ish, which is not a bad thing, but at other times I just get bored during the song. Put it this way, it’s not my favorite song on the album.

Last but certainly not least, the song closes with what has to be the 493rd version of Niggun Neshama recorded in the last two years. I’m giving Eitan a free pass here because at this point since everyone else already recorded their own version, why should he be the only one without one. Especially on this type of a CD with “rare” Niggunim from R’ Shlomo. This song would have been the poster child for rare and unrecorded songs about 3 years ago, but at this point, (sigh), well … despite everything, it’s still a great Niggun. Eitan does a nice job with his version of the song, but the barrage of Niggun Neshama’s have just left me skipping this song no matter who sings it.

Final thoughts ……

This is a must get CD for everyone and I do mean everyone. R’ Shlomo has given so much to the entire Jewish music world and this CD does his Niggunim great justice. The first two thirds of the CD are a bit stronger then the last third, but as complete package I think it’s well worth the price. Just the production on Ma Tovu alone is worth the price of this CD.

You can download a teaser of the tracks here.

Read MoChassid’s take on the CD here.

I’m furious with Blogger right now. I wrote a huge review of Eitan Katz’s new CD last night. Blogger SAID they had this new function that “autosaves” everything you write. So I didn’t bother to save a copy in MSWord. I didn’t see the “draft” button there anymore, so I left the window open overnight and was going to edit and publish it this morning. But the computer froze and when I restarted it blogger didn’t have a copy of the post saved. The entire review is gone. I’m so furious right now. I’m gonna have to rewrite the review later today or tonight.

Since I’ve now been trying to focus on music only blogging I thought it would be apropriate to post todays Hayom Yom which has a musical flavor to it ….

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“T O D A Y ‘ S D A Y”
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Sivan 13, 5767 * May 30, 2007

The Tzemach Tzedek composed many melodies.

He studied Torah aloud and with song.

It would happen that he would interrupt his studies, or his
writing Chassidus or responsa, and sing some melody.

My grandfather related that from the sound of the Tzemach Tzedek’s
melody he could tell in what subject he was then occupied.

As soon as this CD starts you can tell it’s not going to be another Jewish rock CD. What I really liked about the first album was the grunge’ish alt feel the album had. It wasn’t too heavy but it had an edge. The second album was a great album and you can read my full review of that CD (70 Faces) here. All though I liked the album as a whole, I was disappointed that it had left that grunge/alt feel that the first one had. I like when a band sounds very much the same from album to album. Sure a band’s sound can evolve and change, but I don’t want it to change too much, just mature and grow.

The first song on the album, Eitz Chayim really sets the stage for the whole album. It has a very nice Weezer feel. I’m not a musician so it’s hard for me to get technical, but it feels like it’s just chillaxed rock. It has just the right balance of drums and guitar. I really like that they took a fairly mainstream song and gave it that flair and blue fringe makeover. It’s one of my favorite classic shul tunes and the band does a great job in handling it.

The next song, Eshet Chayil continues the trend of using a popular mainstream jewish shul tune and turning it into something familiar but new. This is one of the most well known versions of Eshes Chayil. They mix in English lyrics here and they fit really well with the vibe and flow of the song. The tempo picks up nicely towards the end of the song and it’s still a song I can listen to over and over again months later.

V’Shamru is a good choice to continue in the trend, but for me the song doesn’t pick up enough. I understand it’s originally a slow song, but I would have liked for more of a kick to be given to it. It’s a nicely covered song, but not much in the way of “making it your own”, nice song, just a bit slow for me.

Next the band moves on from covering classic contemporary Jewish tunes to covering a classic Jewish rock tune. Breishit was originally sung by the Moshav Band on the Return Again CD (one of my top faves). Of course if this isn’t where the tune is originally from, someone will correct me. I love the original Moshav version and while it’s again a very chilled and nice song, it’s way to slow for me. I would have liked to hear it sung much closer to the styles in the first couple songs on this album. It does pick up towards the end, but not enough.

Va’ani is a really great song. Start to finish, one of my favorites on this disc. It’s not too slow and it’s not to fast, not too heavy either. It’s gotta really great vibe and feel. I really love the English lyrics mixed into this song and you really feel like the get the words of this song. It’s refreshing to hear a Jewish CD appreciate the words they’re singing and not just looking to make another wedding ht out of Od Yishoma or something.

Listen To You is an original song as far as I can tell. It’s a drop of a departure from the rest of the album. It has a much stronger country or dare I say blues feel to it. I’d guess more county though. There is some really nice guitar playing in this song and it really dares to be different. I think it’s a song that while at first I’d think I wouldn’t like because it’s not like the rest of the album, but for some reason that doesn’t bother me. It’s a good song.

I’ll save myself some time and just say that everything I said for Bereishit applies to this next song. Yehi Shalom is a cover from SoulFarm’s Unwind CD (again, if it’s originally from somewhere else, you’ll correct me) and while it’s a great song and Blue Fringe does a nice job covering it, it doesn’t add that much to the original version and again, it’s a drop too slow for me.

Eicha is a really well done song. Once again English lyrics are mixed into a well known mainstream Jewish shul song. I really think it’s tastefully done and when I listen to it I can feel the things a person should feel when the words of Eicha are read. The sound of the song fits well with the rest of the album and it’s done at a nice pace, although, I’m still feeling that some of these songs are just too chilled, too slow. I’d like to have heard it a little faster.

Speaking of slow, here we go again. Do You Realize is yet another really well done song, but the flow of the album comes to a screeching halt with this particular song. It’s got a very John Lennon IMAGINE feel to it, and again, while independent this song is really nice, it’s just very very slow and I start zoning out. Maybe it could have used some heavier drumming or bass, I’m not sure, like I said before, I’m no musicians, just a fan.

The last song just feel flat, the song is called Birchat Kohanim and it closes out the album with me once again saying the same thing. Too slow, the song is soo chilled I zoned out.

Final Thoughts …..

The actual instrumental work on this album is outstanding and the vocals and just the groove of the band is fantastic, but the second half of this CD just didn’t really work for me as a Blue Fringe album. It was just too slow for me. I think this was probably a great exercise for the band and helped them relocate their sound and image after the departure of their second album.

I think that we’re in for a really amazing 4^th album. I think by now these guys really know what they want to sound like and how they all work off each other. I think this is an album that they probably needed to do to get to this point. I look forward to a new album of all original material and if I can just make one suggestion, pick up the pace! :- ) I’m a huge Blue Fringe fan and I recommend anyone who likes great Jewish rock to pick up this album. My message to the band would be, don’t be afraid to do what you want and let the music guide you. Make the album for yourself and just keep doing what you do.

You can purchase the CD at these links Amazon | iTunes

Oy ……

… and I’m glad it did. Very effective, very potent. Good ad.

Here is a small list of new releases that I’ve bought, will buy or will skip for now.

Already Bought

Eitan Katz Unplugged: R’ Shlomo Songs

This is what I’ve been listening to since last night. As of last night is when we could listen to music, etc. So far I am loving it. It’s so calming, relaxing, aidel, soft and just moves nicely from song to song. I’ll right a full review soon.

Still to Buy

The Next Project X: Lipa

I love me some Lipa and I love these Project X cd’s, it’s like a clip show of your favorite television program. It’s also always great to hear Lipa singing other peoples hits, like Ma Ma Ma, Matzliach Moshiach, Legabay and Niggun Nevo. That itself is worth the price of the CD.

Hamakor: The Source

As a lifelong Moshav Band fan, I feel I need to get this CD. This band is led by another Solomon brother. This one is Nachmon, and based on the sample song alone, it sounds great. A little softer then Moshav, and the music is just as good. I can’t wait to hear the full album.

Elyon: Yonason Hill & Eliezer Kosoy

Ya, Ya, clouds on the cover. I would take one look at this cover and pass, just based on the cover. But I heard one song on the Sameach podcast and I was hooked. It sounds amazing. I listened to some of the sample clips on the website and the entire album sounds great. Some of the songs are in English, and I think its gonna be a good buy. The first song I heard, Seu Sedaichem has a very Hotel California feel to it, which would so far be a good description of this duo, very Eagles sounding.

In the maybe column ….

Shabbos Get Ready: Ari Goldwag, Nochum Stark, Yitzy Spinner, Oded Kariti, Eric Stern, Nachman Seltzer & Yitzchok Rubin

This is still in the maybe’s for me, but I’ll probably get it. I like these type of albums, and I love an album that has a theme. Bringing together all those classic Shabbos songs sounds like a good idea. Vocally they seem to have a nice group, mostly Miami Boys Choir Alumni.

MBD sings Yiddish.

Oy Oy MBD. Why do you do the things you do? MBD’s Yiddish and English songs have long been my favorite. Recently Daddy Dear was ruined for me, and my opinion of MBD and his music was once again lowered. The only reason this CD is in the maybe’s is because of all the song stealing, self riotous preaching about stealing music, when he himself has “adapted” or “borrowed” or whatever people who defend it wanna call it, music from non Jewish sources without proper credit.

With that sad, I’ll probably break down and get it, but I’ll push it off a while. One other thought, if these are all resung I may have a problem with that. MBD’s voice inst what it used to be, and those Yiddish classics should not be retouched. His English collection in my opinion was a major disaster cause he resung them and they lost their aged flavor. I hope this is just a best of CD with old songs compiled on one disc.

I was gonna write now what I won’t be getting, but in the spirit of Shavuos I don’t think thats so nice. Besides, you can figure it out from whats not on my list here. I hope to have reviews on as many of these albums as I can.

You can listen to samples of many of these cd’s on Sameach’s latest podcast.

What are you getting or have already got?

Just popping in to say Good Shabbos and to ask for some love. Despite obscure conspiracies by the minor minority of critics. I didn’t make it past the first round in any non music related category. Music is what I like best, and I love writing about it. Thats one of the reasons I’ve decided to keep music blogging through my hiatus.

So if you feel I deserve it, then please do me the honor of voting for me in either Best Jewish Music Blog or Best Jewish Music Post.

Thanks, and as a treat enjoy these two Eitan Katz videos from the most recent Sameach Podcast. The first one is my favorite, that L’maancha song is frigin awesome.

L’Maancha

Yizbarach Shimcha

It was the best of times, it was the worst of time. Say what you will it was an interesting place. Stalkers, reviews, and the bi annual fight over what it considered “Jewish music”, it’s been a staple in online Jewish music hockers and it’s coming to an end.

The group is moving to a message board hosted by Frum Space. I recommended to anyone interested in discussion Jewish music to go on over there and make a username. Out with the old, in with the new. If you want to say your goodbyes to the Yahoo message group, click here.

Eitan Katz has a new CD of Reb Shlomo tunes. I downloaded this sampler and on my way home from work today I will be getting the CD. It sounds so serene and beautiful. I’ll most certainly be writing a review of this CD. In the mean time read MoChassid’s review. See here for reviews and thoughts on his last album, L’mancha.

To view the video click here.

Here are some beautiful shots from the Kumah blog. Check the rest out.

I’ve been saving a lot of these for today. I wish everyone a great Lag Ba’omer whatever your doing today. If you happen to be in the Brooklyn area around 12ish, come on over the the Crown Heights parade. We are shutting down Eastern Parkway and it’s going to be a very festive exciting event. We need as many people here as possible because the city was not so forthcoming with thier decision to close the street for us. There will be a fair on Kingston Avenue for the duration of the day.

Shapiro Brothers (Acheinu) & Yaakov Shwekey

A Niggun: A new band aiming to play niggunim (Jewish songs) in a way that captures the energy and beauty of the songs but keeps the overall sound as “raw” and “stripped-down.

Y-Love & Yuri Lane Purim Beat Box Freestyle for Sefira

The Lipa Dance

With some video editing, Lipa Schmeltzer dances to the Oif Simchas beat

To All My Brothers and Friends!

A concert with Shlomo Carlebach at Albert Einstein College of Medicine’s Robbins Auditorium in February 1989.

(Links via Gruntig, Frum Music and Apple770)