Shot'nez

Location:
NEW YORK, US
Type:
Artist / Band / Musician
Genre:
Rock / Alternative / Other
Site(s):
Label:
JDUB
Type:
Indie
From the founders of Balkan Beat Box, Ori Kaplan and Tamir Muskat, comes a new project - Shotnez - mixing Middle Eastern and eastern European influences with noise Rock and crime Jazz. The debut album will be released into the wild on JDub Digital on April 5, 2010.
Shotnez grew out of fertile soil at Muskat's Vibromonk Records in Brooklyn, New York. Out of Vibromonk came a galaxy of bands including Big Lazy, Firewater, Pink Noise, JUF (Gogol Bordello), Ori Kaplan's earlier incarnation of Shotnez and ultimately, Balkan Beat Box.
Kaplan's original band, Shaatnez, had roots in experimental jazz, but after his experience at Vibromonk Kaplan re-formed Shotnez along with producer/drummer Muskat, guitarist Stephen Ulrich (Big Lazy, Bored to Death) and Itamar Ziegler on bass (Pink Noise, Balkan Beat Box).
The band's raw, unadorned sound was distilled (not polished!) by performances at NYC's legendary downtown music club TONIC. The eclectic curators at TONIC - from John Zorn to Sonic Youth - created an environment where art rock and experimental music crossed paths. With a foot in both camps, Shotnez had found a home.
Shotnez: a Biblically forbidden mixture
Their first recording, the song "Golden Apple" for John Zorn's Tzadik label, became the template for the Shotnez sound. Beauty meets dissonance as Kaplan's Baritone sax melds with Ulrich's lap steel guitar, delivering haunting melodies over Muskat and Ziegler's ferociously crooked rhythms.
Shotnez, which includes "Golden Apple," expands the collective's musical palette. Kaplan's meticulous eastern melodies give way to his fiery improvisations. Ulrich's Noir guitar presents a menacing twang here and lyrical note there. Muskat's drumming, where punk rock minimalism meets Middle Eastern complexities, is the ground on which the band stands, and the gravity of Ziegler's bass playing, with its Noise meets James Brown sensibility, embraces all.
"The spirit of Shotnez," explains Kaplan, "is dark, romantic, and totally kick-ass. We like to call it Mediterranean surf noir. It's cinematic. you follow the stream of sound like the plotline of a movie."
It's pure "madness," says The LA Weekly, "a whole new way to play music."
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