Metal Jew

Something potentially very exciting

 

An organisation called eurient which works for cultural dialogue, has developed the following proposal. Looks very exciting and I hope they get the funding. Who would have imagined that Metal could save the world!

A Transmediterranean Clash of Sound

 

- project details -

 

Prelude

The starting point for the idea of the Clash of Sound-Project is the critique of a number of popular conceptions conceiving culture as a territorial concept which is embedded into a national container-society. Today’s most topical and popular version of such ideas has been formulated with the theses of the Clash of Civilizations and the global awakening of religious fundamental movements in the aftermath of September 11^th.

These politically motivated and essentialist traits of thought are opposed to a global development that gives way to a quite different perspective on our future. Cultural globalisation processes speed up and gain strength as the global distribution of media and communication systems proceeds. The digital revolution of the last decade provides the basis for a wide access to almost indefinite cultural resources and identity options – a chance especially young people take advantage of. This global availability of cultural resources dislocates processes of identity construction from local or national contexts. As a consequence global youth cultures are growing ever stronger. Though each is bound to a specific local context they are interconnected in a network that trespasses national and religious borders. The main point for concept of a Clash of Sound is the collective consciousness that grows within many of these youth cultures defying all national, religious or ethnic background.

Heavy Metal represents one of those youth cultural phenomena that see a world wide reception and appropriation within most different social and cultural contexts. CDs, video clips, concerts, magazines, and the virtual components of the Internet (e.g. web-sites, chats…) convey its specific image and life style to young people of very different origin.

 

Aims and purposes

The aim of the project is to point out new chances of intercultural dialog beyond religious and national boundaries. This proceeds on the assumption that the globalisation of cultural identities is about to determine the thoughts and actions of the younger generation, not a clash of civilisations. The project wants to bring young musicians together who consider themselves to belong to the same music and youth culture. This intends to create a common space of experience for intellectual and cultural exchange between musicians of different national, religious and ethnic origin. With the encounter of various musicians from

Israel

,

Syria

,

Turkey

and

Germany

we want to show that a peaceful togetherness is still possible in spite of September 11^th, fundamentalism and terrorism. By means of a high-quality media representation of the project we urge to initiate public reflections on this trans-cultural phenomenon thereby helping to soften preformatted and essentialist conceptions of culture.

 

Realization

The musicians: The Clash of Sound-Project consists of the bands Nu.Clear.Dawn from

Syria

(contact: Shant Hagopian), Sould Sacrifice from

Turkey

(contact: Maksim Kırıkoğlu),

Orphaned

Land

from

Israel

(contact: Kobi Farhi) and Disillusion from

Germany

(contact: Rajk Barthel). Criteria for the selection of the artists are the following:

1) With the exception of Disillusion the musicians know each other from a joint musical show at the ‘Rock the Nations Festival’ in

Istanbul

in summer 2004. They have been on friendly terms even before and much more after the show.

2) Besides the national composition of the project, the ethnic-religious compositions of each band are highly relevant. Highlighting the ethnical aspect, the Turkish Band Soul Sacrifice includes a member of

Istanbul

’s marginalised Bulgarian-Christian minority; two members of the Syrian Band Nu.Clear.Dawn descend from survivors of the genocide that had been committed against the Armenian people of

Anatolia

90 years ago; the other members of the band are of Arab-Muslim and Arab-Christian origin. The musicians of

Orphaned

Land

derive from different ethnic roots as well, reflecting the background of their families which migrated to

Israel

from various regions. If we were to believe in the concept of the Clash of Civilizations an encounter of muscians from such politically laden contexts would be simply impossible surfacing a vast variety of political-religious conflicts.

3) Last but not least, there is the musical professionalism of the artists and the idea of offering them a forum for their artistic work outside the rather narrow possibilities within their respective native countries.

Date of Realization: April 2006

Course of Programme: As a first step, the musicians will be brought to

Leipzig

where they meet their German colleagues from Disillusion. The stay in

Leipzig

lasts for one week. During that time, the musicians gather for musical sessions in order to develop a common language and to do some first recordings. This first week is also dedicated to the intercultural dialog among the members of the bands. This dialog will be further deepened by an appropriate way of group accommodation.

The second step consists of musical shows envisioned for

Leipzig

,

Dresden

,

Prague

,

Berlin

,

Stuttgart

and two other cities within

Germany

. Following this tour, a last day in

Leipzig

is scheduled for a joint review of the project in combination with a press conference.

Media Representation: A professional film team (NATURFILM, contact: Rolf Sziringer) will be accompanying the musicians during all phases of the project. Focusing on scenes of everyday life as well as on personal interviews with the band members, the emerging Clash of Sound-Documentary is aimed to be broadcatsted on the German-French TV-channel ‘arte’. Negotiations with ’arte’ are already under way.

Furthermore, the project is supposed to enjoy a wide media coverage in public as well as in relevant magazines of the Heavy Metal scene in- and outside

Germany

. We have already received letters of intent from a great variety of newspapers, magazines and radio stations in- and outside

Germany

. Further contacts with representatives of different medias are due for the coming weeks and months.

Finally, a CD is produced from the material athered during the sessions in

Leipzig

and the live shows. This CD should be distributed free of charge by relevant music magazines and labels in

Germany

,

Turkey

,

Israel

and the

Czech

Republic

.

 

Perspectives

Given a successful realization of the Clash of Sound we envision a stay of German bands in

Turkey

. Contact to local organizers of the ‘Rock the Nations’-Festival in

Istanbul

(contact: Erdem Çapar) and the ‘Rock Station’ (contact: Hicri Bozdağ) and representatives of different medias are already established.

 

Important Annotation

With regard to the ALF guidelines we plan to bring a second European band into the project. Negotiations are under way with the Hungarian band Ektomorf (contact: Thomas Jentsch). But we would like to draw the attention to the point that a fifth band would render the realization of the project a lot more difficult und costly regarding the joint musical shows, the recording studios and the means of transportation. Alternatively, we would want to suggest considering Soul Sacrifice from

Turkey

as the second European band!

 

Midbar

A correspondent informs me that in the 1990s there was a Brooklyn based Metal band called Midbar (Hebrew for desert) who apparently released a couple of albums.  If anyone has any info on this I'd be truly grateful...

Metal captures Eurovision

Watching the semi-finals of the Eurovison song contest last night, it occured to me that there has been a genuine change in Eurovision music. It used to be all the inanest pop songs (many of which were great of course) and the cheesiest of ballads - and of course there's still quite a lot of that.

However Ruslana's victory last year seems to have changed things. Now, 'ethnic' and 'national' signifiers abound - all pounding drums, national costumes and 'native' musics.  But interestingly, lyrics remain in English. Which brings us to the Metal part: Since the early 90s, it's been common in the Metal world (particularly the Extreme Metal world) to emphasise locality and 'roots' (Sepultura being pioneers here). Yet, with some notable exceptions, lyrics remain in English. In Metal, some kind of balance has been found between local difference and global homogeneity, although it frequently doesn't work.  It seems the same type of practice  is being developed in Eurovison.

It's also interesting that hard rock and Metal stylings also seem to have become much more popular in Eurovision. The Norwegian entry is an addictively catchy Darkness-style parody of hard rock/Metal. The Russian entry is an Allanah Myles-style overwraught rock chic ditty.  Even on the non-rocky tracks you find long haired guitarists striking postures.

Much of this change comes from the influx of E European countries into Eurovision over the past few years. Although sneered at by many, I find the entiries from these countries are often a breath of fresh air. Artists are often much more playful and experimentel - as in the bizarre, unclassifiable Moldovan entry this year feature a grandmother banging a drum.
Compare this with the tired Irish entry, previous Eurovision behemoths, and the rubbish UK and French entires over the last few years.

Maybe Rumsfeld had a point: Eastern Europe is the 'New Europe', coming to breath new life into European culture and kick our arses in the process.

Hatikvah

The excellent music blog Zion B'Ayin features NY Metal band Gods of Fire's cover of the Israeli national anthem, Hatikvah.

Politically, I'm not a fan of the Israeli national anthem for all sorts of reasons and the cover is no more than a curiosity.  Still, worth a quick listen.

.

New Salem release

The website of Salem , Israel's oldest Metal band, reports on an upcoming new release called 'Strings Attached', featuring old Salem songs performed with a string quartet.

Hmm...

Help me out

I don't know if I have any regular readers, or if any of them are design-savvy.  If I do then I have a request to make: can anyone help me to design a banner for this blog?

Let's face it, this blog looks rubbish.  I have a good idea for a banner but I don't know how to make one.

I'm happy to give a small gift to the person who can make this blog look good..

From the Shtetl to Heavy Metal

Okay so this is about 5 years late but I just found this article about a show called "From the Shtetl to Heavy Metal" which was apparently:

a tongue-in-cheek celebration of Jewish rockers ranging from such '70s and '80s embarrassments as Kiss, Van Halen and Blue Oyster Cult to the seminal New York punks the Ramones and heavy-metal acts like Anthrax and Quiet Riot.

Heaven for the Metal Jew...

Israeli Metal Scene

Thanks to Andy Rantzen for finding this brief article on Israeli Metal (from 2003). It's not very good but it has some good links at the end:

Link: The Israeli Metal Scene.

Not very Metal, not very Jewish - but of great concern to me

This week is ME awareness week:

Link: BBC - Health - Awareness campaigns - ME Awareness Week.

Jericho's Echo

A begging letter in a worthy cause:

-------DONATION EMAIL FOR YOUR MAILING LISTS--------
Dear (Friend's Name),

Filmmaker Liz Nord just finished an important documentary about kids involved in the underground music scene in Israel. The movie is called "Jericho's Echo: Punk Rock in the Holy Land." She spent a month shooting the documentary in Israel last summer, and has just premiered it with great success at the Tel Aviv International Documentary Festival.

I'm writing because Liz really needs your help to get this movie out there, at a time when people are desperately trying to understand the tumultuous situation in the Middle East. The young people she met and interviewed on her trip give eye-opening insights into the lives of young Israelis. Liz is trying to bring one of the Israeli bands from the movie to the U.S. and tour with them across the country, giving folks a fresh perspective on what's happening in Israel.

ANY donation (even $20!) will help bring the documentary to a town near you. Most of the movie is being funded entirely by a grassroots effort like this one. It's easy to donate securely online here:
http://www.jerichosecho.com/donate.html

I've already donated to this independent project and I encourage you to do the same. Even if you can't make a donation now, you can sign up to get updates on the project at www.jerichosecho.com, and pass on this email to help get more support.

Thanks,
(Your Name)
P.S. This project is not-for-profit. That means that your donation over $250 can be TAX EXEMPT! Make a tax exempt donation by mailing a check to FILM ARTS FOUNDATION with the memo "Jericho's Echo" to: Liz Nord /3288 21st Street #2 /San Francisco, CA 94110.http://www.jerichosecho.com/donate.html