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
Little Dragons Flying In
Next Monday, 23.5.11, the beloved Swedish band Little Dragon will be performing a show at Tel-Aviv’s Barby venue. The show is part of Shesek’s 10th Anniversary celebrations, and is a step up for us from the previous events in this series, which so far has included DJ sets at the lounge by Tokimonsta and Pangaea. Tickets can be bought at the Barby site, as well as at Shesek and the Michatronix bar.
The show is Little Dragon’s last date of their current European tour, and just a brief second before they hit major summer festivals like Glastonbury and Sonar. I’ve seen them live in London a few years back, and Nadav caught them at the Big Chill, and both times they were magnificent. I truly believe it’s a rare chance for Tel-Aviv to synch in with what the world’s biggest stages are buzzing about.
A quick check revealed to me that Little Dragon are among the artist which have appeared the most times in the Rasham-Kol podcasts since their launch almost 3 years ago (obviously way before we even thought of having them over). A Google check further revealed that our little Botanika site even appears as the last entry on the first results page when searching for “Little Dragon”. Yes, that much love.
For those who don’t know them – here’s a mix I’ve done with some of my favorite songs of theirs, alongside their excellent Gorillaz and Maximum Balloon collaborations (i.m.o stealing the show on both albums), and a sneaky Burial mashup thrown in as a bonus towards the end. Press play.
Podcast: Download (Duration: 42:22 — 77.6MB)
Tracklist and more info after the jump.
Botanika meets the Red Eye Family in Jerusalem..
The Red Eye Familia crew in Jerusalem have been been holding the fort for a couple of years now. Bringing low frequencies mayhem and dubstep action to the capital, the Red Eye Familia have quite simply done the impossible.
For this excuse of a winter, while celebrating the rising profile of the familia’s very own Bunny on Acid, they have organized a series of 3 parties at the Jerusalem Bass club – two of these parties are done in collaboration with us.
This Friday, December 3rd, the line up features Egozy+Onili, doing their unique live act together, in a rare club performance. They are followed by Kalbata, playing a set which consists mostly of his own productions. The locals, Mofo and of course, Bunny on Acid, are playing too, playing a selection that will be both mad and surprising.
The next party, on January 14th, features NDV, who’s just finished a new remix for Bunny on Acid’s Oxygen, for a forthcoming release on Botanika.
Here’s a small taster for the party:
Check out the Facebook event page,
and meet us in Jerusalem. You have two chances, make sure you don’t miss them both!
Botanika showcase on Dialogue Inc
Dialogue Inc is a radio show and a blog, curated by Chicago’s Mister Joshua P. Ferguson. Josh is a local DJ who was recently nominated in URB as one of America’s best local DJs, and by day he’s the editor of the night life section at Time Out Chicago.
Josh asked me to do a special Botanika feature for Dialogue Inc, and I happily obliged. First of all, there’s the music. I did a 50 mins Botanika showcase, previewing some unreleased material and some other gems by the artists on the Botanika roster, and in-between all of this goodness, I scattered some tracks by other musicians we like and respect, just to put things in the right context..
Anyway, you can find the post right here, including a short interview with myself, and the show’s tracklist.
In the meantime, start listening here
Podcast: Download (Duration: 2:00:25 — 110.3MB)
Onili & Sabbo SXSW & US shows
Our dearest bunny-like Onili, with an EP on Botanika scheduled for later in the year (as well as being the voice sampled on Kalbata’s smashing “Oh Gosh”), is embarking this week on a 2 week US tour. You can catch her this Friday in Miami’s Coco de Ville, followed by a string of dates over at Austin’s SXSW festival, on the 23rd in Philly’s Silk City, and on the 24-26 in New York. Full dates & details here:
Friday, March 12, 11:30 PM – Coco De Ville, Miami, Florida
Wednesday, March 17, 12 PM – SXSW, Pure Volume Party, Austin, Texas
Wednesday, March 17, 11 PM – SXSW, Club 115, Austin, Texas
Thursday, March 18, 11PM – SXSW, Soulico’s guest, Momo’s, Austin, Texas
Friday, March 19, 1-8 PM – SXSW, Live Mixtape Showcase, Red Fez, Austin, Texas
Saturday, March 20, 10PM – SXSW, Soulico’s guest, J-Dub Records Party, Beauty Bar, Austin, Texas
Tuesday, March 23 – Silk City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Wednesday, March 24, 4PM – Best Buy, Union Square, NY
Thursday, March 25, Midnight – Nublu, NY
Meanwhile, or while fighting your desperation of not being able to make it to any of those, u can cheer up with the super clever short video she’s just done for her song “Sentimental”, using sound bytes of some famous characters to supplement her own singing. Don’t mind my useless description, just watch it. She’ll be back in Tel-Aviv in early April, when on the 22nd of the month she’ll be launching her debut album. We’ll update with the full details in due time.
As you can see in Onili’s US dates above, she’ll be meeting up with our Soulico homies – Sabbo’s DJ crew – over at SXSW for a few shows. Biggest of them seems to be the J-Dub Records showcase to be held over at Austin’s Beauty Bar, where they’ll be joining Balkan Beat Box and our fellow Tel-Aviv-sters Boom Pam.
On other Sabbo related news: his remix of Schlachtofbronx’s Ayoba single got much love from various blogs across the web, as many of his other recent hyper-speedy kuduru/soca-ish/bass tracks of late. He has also just turned in an official remix for France’s Perfect Losers to be released in the near future, another one coming up for the Nigerian Highlife singer Onyenze (on Akwaaba Music), as well as working hard for his follow-up EP for us Botanikats.
Have some States fun for us all yo!
