BALUTLP001: Polar Pair (Album)

Polar Pair, aka Malkiel Grossman & Nadav Ravid, have been making music together for almost twenty years. It took the world about the same time to catch up with their vision.

It’s impossible to box Polar Pair’s music into one neat definition; The gamut is simply too wide. The music oscillates from throbbing dance-floor tracks to R’n'B ballads, primal post-punk to cutting-edge bass music, hip-hop to disco, catchy pop to experimental beats. These influences can sometimes be easily spotted and sometimes they’re blended together, as if that was their purpose all along.

Malkiel and Nadav have been meeting religiously at their Polar Pair studios for years, banging heads and letting off pent up, notoriously muggy Tel-Aviv steam, churning out banger after banger. Some of these were released hot-off- the-press, straight to their tumblr, while the rest – the gems, the jewels, the Ferran Adriàs of bangers – culminated in this album. Born with the original working title “Every Song is Different”, the album relishes in living up to this: it swings between entire genres, colours, gender-roles and moods, varying deliciously in tone and atmosphere; It nails pastiches to the past and takes bold stabs at defining the future, layering familiar, comforting voices with bright, unheard ones.

These may all seem like symptoms of bi-polar disorder, but they are the unlikely ingredients that make up the new Polar Pair album.

Released October 1st, 2012

Booklet designed by Tubi
Cover designed by Heela Harel || helloheela.tumblr.com
Cover image by Germanex || germanex.deviantart.com

Introducing kzradio.net

A new web station dedicated to good music is always a good cause for celebration, and for us even more so, when both Nadav and Egozy are involved with the newly established web station kzradio.net.

Out of the ashes of the “Hakatze” radioshow Nadav hosted until December 2011 on Israel’s most popular national music station, GLGLZ, alongside partner Quami for the 13 years prior, the two decided to not only find it a new home – which they did, at national station 88FM, airing every Sunday at midnight – but mostly to take advantage of the momentum and to expand and develop it up-to-the-times and into a much larger scale.

Operating on a daily basis, alongside Nadav and Quami’s personal solo weekly shows, it now also includes weekly shows by radio luminaries such as Yoav Kuttner and Leon ‘Napoleon’ Feldman and young talents Ofri Goffer and Jonathan Sharoni with Amir Egozy stationed somewhere in the middle – all combined covering the widest range of the alternative musical spectrum.

Although being on air only since the 1st of April (no joke!) and still in it’s beta version, so far response from listeners has been overwhelming, and its further development is taking up quite a lot of our time and energies. This doesn’t mean there’s no time for the fun side of things, as can be witnessed on shows with esteemed guests such as Joe Clausell, Wolf & Lamb, Juju&Jordash and Derrick May.

Nadav’s show is on Tuesday and Egozy on Thursday, both airing live at 3PM (GMT +2), but the shows are available on demand soon after the live show ends.

Botanika FM, 1.3.12

 

Late winter edition, with many Detroit references, as we love the new Model 500 track on R&S. Scroll down for the “play” button.

Tracklist:

Robert Glasper Experiment – Black Radio feat. yasiin bey (Blue Note)
fLako Feat Dirg Gerner – Lonely Town (Keadz Remix) (Promo)
Parallel Dance Ensemble – Occupied (Salax Peep Show Remix) // Possessions And Obsessions Remixed (Permanent Vacation)
Blu Jemz – Darkest Night (Turntable Lab Editions)
Renegade Soundwave – Renegade Soundwave (The Leftfield Dub) (Mute)
Polar Pair – Not Real (SaBBo RMX) (Botanika Test)
Polar Pair – Fantasy Love (Juju & Jordash remix) (Botanika)
Maxmillion Dunbar – Polo // Max Trax For World Peace (Future Times)
Avalon Emerson – Warm Up Love (Promo)
Boddhi Satva – Make Up Your Mind Feat. Stephen Rigmaiden // From Another World (BBE)
Afefe Iku – Balao // Artifacts of Pottery Vessels) (Yoruba)
Moodymann – JAN (KDJ)
Arttu – Nuclear Funk (ft Jerry The Cat) (Royal Oak)
Gadi Mizrahi – So Addicted To You // Joint Custody EP (Double Standard)
Fhloston Paradigm – Chasing Rainbows (Hyperdub)
Reese – Rock to the Beat // Faces & Phases (SSR)
Untitled – Jumpin Omar (Promo)
Conqueror – Highest Order (Lobster Boy)
Bonobo – Kiara (Cosmin TRG Remix) // Black Sands Remixed (Ninja Tune)
Klic – Post (Promo)
Scuba – If U Want // Personality (Hotflush)
D’Angelo – Untitled (How Does it Feel) (L-Vis 1990′s Own Way Edit) (Promo)
Gregory Porter – 1960 What? (Opolopo Kick & Bass Rerub) (Tokyo Dawn)
Kaidi Tatham & Dego – Got Me Puzzled (2000 Black)
Recloose – Feels Like Magic feat. B. Slade (C2 Edit) (Rush Hour)
Burial – Loner (Hyperdub)
Maribou State – Olivia (MAO Remix) (Fat!)
Persian – Feel Da Vibe (Existence Is Resistance)
Jamie Grind – Rum N Raisin (Hackman Remix) (Wicked Bass)
Derrick May – Drama // Innovator (Transmat)
Model 500 – The Messenger (R&S)
Galaxy 2 Galaxy – Amazon (Underground Resistance)

Podcast: Download (Duration: 2:05:42 — 230.2MB)

Botanika FM, 5.1.2012

Teder.FM Take Over

 

On Monday, 17.10, we’ll be doing our first ever full label profile, happening at pop-up radio-bar Teder, taking over from the early evening into deep in the night slot. Coinciding with Teder’s last week of programs for Summer 2011 and the end of the local holiday season, it’s a great opportunity for a full Botanika family gathering like we’ve never done before.

Starting at 8PM (Israel time, +2 GMT), and going on till the last drop (somewhere around 3Am or so), we’ll be showcasing the full Botanika artists roster, one by one, with special radio-friendly DJ sets, focusing on the artists and their productions, alongside interviews, inspirations, chats with designers involved with the label, special discounts on Botanika records and so forth.

Here’s also a recent label profile and interview with us on Tel-Aviv’s ‘Ha-ir’ weekly (Hebrew)

Schedule will probably look like this:

8-9 PM – Markey Funk
9-10 – Michael  Cohen
10-11 – NDV (representing the wide NDV-Polar Pair spectrum)
11-12 – Bunny on Acid (his new ‘Bionic Dreams‘ has just been released on 2019 Records)
12-1 AM – Sabbo
1-2  - Kalbata
2-3 – Amir Egozy

For the special occasion we’ll be offering one-time bundles of our vinyl & digital releases to be purchased on the spot.

You can either tune in and listen form afar, or if in the vicinity, join us at the Teder plaza for a beer & vegetables with techini. FB event here.

If you’re quick and reading this on the day of posting, you can also catch Egozy’s last Rasham-Kol radioshow on Teder, airing tonight between 9-11PM Israel time.

 

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