In the mail... Heedoosh's debut disc "Meumkah Delibah".
In their press kit, Heedoosh claim their music is "a completely unique style." They also describe their music as "Songs... of breathtaking beauty and complexity, rooted in sacred text and combined with contemporary verses gilded with a true rock edge influenced by Stone Temple Pilots, Radiohead, Coldplay and Oasis - a mix of hard rock and Brit-pop with Hebrew lyrics and Jewish themes." Completely unique, yet derivative! I see. In short, Heedoosh plays Jewish alt-rock.
On this recording, for the most part, the backing music is all performed by producer Eli Massias with Ari Leichtberg contributing drums on most of the tracks. The album feels more like a concept demo than a band project, although it still sounds pretty good. "Dos pop" vocalist turned" J-alt rocker" Yaniv Tsaidi sings all of the songs. (As a side note, I caught Tsaidi's set with his alt/brit-pop cover band, Rocking Chair, w/Blue Fringe's Avi Hoffman a few months back in NYC. This is obviously a style he relates to well.) Massias' arrangements and production capture many of the stereotypes of the genre including the vocal processing. The musicians are good players and Tsaidi is a strong vocalist. Now that Heedoosh has added some musicians, namely bassist Gary Levitt and second guitarist Yoshie Fruchter, I'm interested in seeing how the band develops their concept.
About the tunes...
Album opener Etz Hayim sound like what you might get if Stone Temple Pilots wrote Jewish music. Lev Tahor starts off softly and slowly shifts into an increasingly heavier groove starting about halfway through. The punk-influenced Purim Song is a lot of fun. Lishuatcha's loop-based groove is interesting, but the track's groove seems out-of-place relative to the rest of the tracks. Lecha Dodi is an interesting track that takes advantage of Tsaidi's Yemenite vocals and the percussion contibute to create an interesting Middle-Eastern/alternative hybrid.
If you like alt-rock ala Radiohead and Stone Temple Pilots, and you're looking for a Jewish flavored version of the same, you might want to check out Heedoosh. The CD is available through their website.
