BALUT007: Bunny on Acid – Snow (09/2010)
August 4, 2010
Published by 
Bunny On Acid (Izik Finley) is a 25 years old DJ/Producer from Jerusalem. He started his musical path at the age of 15, playing bass guitar in several local acts, and later stinting as a computer games music producer. Though he was already playing around with a bit of D’n'B productions for a while, it was only a after a revelatory visit to DMZ at Brixton’s Mass, that Izik created the Bunny On Acid moniker, influenced by the dubstep movement and the FlyLo-like fringes of the hip-hop world.
Locked in the studio while not DJing alongside his Red Eye Familia crew, Bunny on Acid is now focusing on his debut album, influenced by 2-Step, Dubstep, Drum & Bass and the latest Garage mutations – trying to expand on those, taking them into further spaces in & outside the club scenario.
“Snow”, the debut single by BOA, is a startling showcase of his talent. A lush and atmospheric dubstep piece – washes of emotive and poignant pads set against quivering, insisting beats, with a bottom end that holds it all together and makes the inner bits of your stomach bubble up.
The B Side, “Unknown”, takes a further leap into the, well, unknown. Fractures of vocals, synth sweeps and beats are breaking on to the ear, and then reversing like digital ocean waves, creating new rhythms and textures while sounding like the bastard son of Hud Mo & Strakey during a night-swim in the Atlantic.
“Snow” b/w “Unknown” is just the tip of the Bunny iceberg, taken from an ever evolving flow of tracks he’s churning out of the studio on a weekly basis. Def more to come.
- (Cover designed by Heela Harel)
Bunny on Acid – Snow (BALUT007) by Botanika
Feedback:
“Another two excellent tracks mate. Botanika is on fire, keep them coming.”
DK, Ninja Tune/Solid Steel
“Liking Unknown.”
Rob Luis, Tru Thoughts
“Snow is Material Fire!! two great tracks that compliment todays ever growing scene of producers making unnamed regions of atmospheric music which meets & blends between genre’s”
Jay Scarlett, Beat Dimension
“i really like it mate… both sounding sick”
Alex Nut, Eglo/All Young Kings
BALUT006: Markey Funk – Soul of Technopolis
Musician/producer/DJ/turntablist/crate-digger and music-archivist Markey Funk is a staple of the Jerusalem underground music scene. Starting off as a hip-hop and funk DJ, his musical palette has grown constantly wider and deeper, embracing everything between tropicalia, psychedelia and modern day broken-beats. His dedication and vision has taken him from producing bedroom beats into collaborations with some of Israel’s leading hip-hop and funk artists, such as Sagol 59 (J-Dub records), Bangladeath, Coolooloosh and his close-knit friends Radio Trip (whom he remixed for Jalapeno records), as being The Apples‘ permanent support DJ on their live shows.
His debut release for Botanika records consists of two delicate and astutely crafted beat explorations, not far removed from the cosmic slop of Sa-Ra or DJ Spinna’s Dilla tributes. Soul of Technopolis combines moog inspired electronics with a bumpy 100 bpm hip hop beat, lead by a spaced-out jazzy melody. Its’ flipside, Cissy Mechanics, starts off in even deeper and almost atmospheric territories, combining traces of exotica and psych with a funky breakbeat that turns up mid-way through.
(Cover designed by Idit Frenkel)
BALUT004: Kalbata – Oh Gosh 21.12.09
Kalbata, real name Ariel Tagar, is a bass music pioneer based in Tel Aviv. Regardless of genre, his distinct musical approach comes through in everything he does – a deep affection for the lowest of frequencies and a collection of vintage effects and instruments which guarantee his razor-sharp beats will always have a warm analog feel, floating in a pool of endless ripples and echoes. With a series of high profile remixes for Spank Rock, Ben Mono, Sunship, Roll Deep & Fat Freddy’s Drop, and a feature on Slices magazine, Kalbata’s dark-star is on the rise.
Oh Gosh, the latest release from Kalbata comes hot on the heels of his recent dubstep banger, the “Ninja We Ninja” white label, championed by such heavyweight DJs as Toddla T, TRG, RSD & N-Type (who included it in his Rinse:09 mix-CD), and his two twelve inches for the legendary Soul Jazz label.
On the A-side, Oh Gosh is an instant classic, dripping late night soul sentiments into the 2-step-garage/dubstep continuum, backed by a mean bassline rumbling beneath it. The short vocal samples come courtesy of Tel-Aviv’s pop-tastic songstress Onili. Karl Butter on the B-side is a more straightforward dubstep/breaks affair, fusing 8-bit analog bleeps with bouncy beats and killer breakdowns into total dancefloor mayhem, which cannot be fully appreciated until heard on a large soundsystem.
Get this on Botanika Shop
BALUT005: NDV – South Bridge EP
South Bridge is a big, shiny scaffold, connecting the southern hemisphere continents, namely Africa and South America, with an imaginary spot in London. It’s linking the London heritage of heavy bass, broken beats & UK funky with Afro-Latin rhythms and percussion – from afro-techno beats to acidic cumbia.
The South Bridge EP is inspired by the fresh attitude of the UK Funky sound, but tries to take it another notch up, making the tracks a bit more than just DJ tools, injecting it with more emotional substance, melodic twists and more fully realized arrangements.
NDV is one half of Polar Pair and part of the Botanika label / DJ crew.
Southbridge EP cover was designed by Tubi, a local designer and fellow DJ.
South Bridge EP is released digitally on October 19th Through Botanika Records.
NDV – South Bridge EP by Botanika
Get this on the Botanika Shop
BALUT003 – Polar Pair – This is What Happens. Out now
This Is What Happens, the third release on the Botanika label, is a story of two cities: Tel-Aviv, Israel, represented on the A side by Polar Pair; and Detroit, USA, represented by both Atlantis, with a ferocious spoken word delivery, and Mark Flash, whose classic Detroit soulful techno remix occupies the B side – both of whom hail from the Underground Resistance collective.
The collaboration between Polar Pair and Atlantis, the voice behind UR’s classic Transitions, came about after a meeting in Tel Aviv in Spring 2007, and now the dubplate is creating serious club-buzz in the underground scenes of both cities, as in the UR related forums.
Polar Pair is the ongoing production team of Malkiel Grossman and Nadav Ravid (aka NDV). They have collaborated with Maddslinky, Shawn Lee, Daz-I-Kue, Sinden, and have remixed the likes of Al Haca, Bonde Do Role and Black Devil Disco Club.
Punk-Funk, cut-up breaks and classic UR techno colliding on the third release of the Tel-Aviv based label – representing the cutting-edge diversity of the artistic/musical collective behind it.
The delicious artwork was designed by Heela Harel, based on a picture taken by Dania Heller
