Ouzo Bazooka
Songs From 1001 Nights EP

For once, let's expand our boundaries to a part of the world that is generally considered in the chronicles only for religious issues and - above all - of a geopolitical nature. I am referring to the "Near East," that geographical region between the Mediterranean, the Jordan River, and the Dead Sea and down to the border with Egypt, universally known as "Palestine." A territory that, as is well known, is today divided between the State of Israel and the State of Palestine and at the center of a conflictual situation that always seems far from being definitively closed.

From the urban area of Tel Aviv, and more specifically from the ancient city of Jaffa on the Mediterranean Sea, considered by certain historians as the last Arab city to fall into Israeli army hands (nevertheless clearly inhabited by a predominantly Arab population), comes this psychedelic music group known as Ouzo Bazooka. They have just released a new EP titled "Songs From 1001 Nights" on Stolen Body Records of Bristol (UK). The group is fundamentally a creation of Uri Brauner Kinrot, probably one of the most important names in the Israeli alternative music scene, and a collaborator over the years with Balkan Beat Box, producer and DJ Shantel, the Kocani Orkestar, and Tod A.'s Firewater (formerly of Cop Shoot Cop), as well as the frontman of Boom Pam. The band's sound is an explosive mix of acid surf-rock and exotic psychedelic Middle Eastern sounds, accompanied by extensive use of synths or electric organs and keyboards. Except for "1001 Nights" (the only truly psychedelic-rock track in the EP), the record is completely instrumental and apart from some guitar constructions in the style of Sir Richard Bishop in "Nile Fever," it actually takes a different turn, assuming sounds in the style of Balkan Beat Box or electronic-music versions of the dabka of Syrian Omar Souleyman.

Ideologically, Ouzo Bazooka's proposal is certainly interesting: the declared will is to draw the best from what might and indeed, despite everything, is the combination of two millenary cultures (the Jewish and the Arab ones) in the context of a city rich in past history and also, despite itself, at the center of present-day chronicles. From this point of view, the intention is undoubtedly fulfilled. However, there should be a discussion and revision of the formula because after a promising start, this EP gets lost in compositions that may be fun but musically uninteresting, if not vacuous, as well as entirely unoriginal.