Wednesday, March 09, 2005

Deja Vu All Over Again

For the second week in a row, Ben Jacobson is dismissing a Dos Pop album as "not artistic."
The result is not particularly artistic or creative, and the songs are not as catchy as usual for the world of pop, but the slick production values and arrangements replete with skilled playing make the disc successful - in the ears of its intended target market, if nowhere else."
He does like Eliyon Shemesh's album.
Eliyon Shemesh hails from the English-speaking, Israeli hippie hotbed that is Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach's Moshav Mevo Modiim. In a Jewish world overrun by Shlomo wannabes, Shemesh has a reputation for carrying the torch in a manner that is not only genuine but also truly his own.

In recent years, Eliyon (the word means "the highest") has become known as the wild drummer for the popular Chaim Dovid, but Shemesh's career as a frontman for his own band, the Kochavim, is still developing.