Showing posts with label botanika. Show all posts

Proving without doubt that there's more to Israeli dance music than Psy-Trance, the Botanika fellas have been bringing the funk in the most delightfully dirty of ways for some time, with their regular events in Tel Aviv featuring the likes of Kode9, Theo Parrish and Stereotyp, plus their Botanika FM podcasts.

Now they're making the most of their finely tuned eardrums by releasing some superb tracks under their very own imprint. Their first 3 releases include some warm and wobblesome Dancehall infused Dubstep from Sabbo, a funk stomping head nodder from Polar Pair alongside Shawn Lee and another Polar Pair collaboration with spoken wordsmith Atlantis from Detroit collective Underground Resistance that sits comfortably between Techno, Breaks and Disco.

(YSI) Sabbo feat MC Zulu - Spanish Fly (Noiz in Zion Remix) / alt link

(YSI) Polar Pair feat Atlantis - This is What Happens / alt link

(YSI) Polar Pair feat Shawn Lee - Ever Happy / alt link

I’ve picked up quite a lot of music from the Middle East over the years (admittedly most of it was rather cheesy, if anyone has some ‘real’ music hit me off), however Israel is probably the one country from that part of the world that has musically eluded me in the past. Aside from maybe Yael Naim (who had that song New Soul on the Apple Macbook Air advert) and The Apples (not sure if there’s some kind of strange link here) I would have struggled to name anybody else from the region.

But now thanks to a new compilation ‘Shirbul’ from Israeli DJ / Producer Nadav Ravid, I finally have a sonic door through which to slide through and take a peek at what’s happening there, and just to help us along, they are all tracks which he has remixed in a Chrome Kids friendly fashion over the past 5 years.


Nadav Ravid is one half of future funk duo Polar Pair who have some releases out on the Tru Thoughts label and Botanika, a musical collective who also host a regular podcast (the latest of which I have posted below).

‘Shirbul’ means remix in Hebrew, at least it should be as there’s no other word which exists for it. Might take a little bit of time before it surfaces in the Hebrew dictionary however.

The whole compilation can be downloaded for free here or as a 51 minute mix by fellow Botanika member Amir Egozy here and is made up of exclusively the remixes which Nadav has done for Israeli artists, although in our selection below we have also included a fantastic Polar Pair remix of Bone Do Role’s ‘Jabuticaba’.

(YSI) Emily Karpel - Freckles (NDV'S Dirty South Beach Remix ft Puffy Nelson)

(YSI) Electra - Better Sound (Worse Sound Remix by Nadav Ravid)

(YSI) Laroz ft Trevor Ranks & Daddy Colonel - Sabo Ital (NDV Remix)

(YSI) T-Slam - This Whistle (NDV'S B-More Edit)

(Direct Link) Bonde Do Role - Jabuticaba (Polar Pair Remix)

(Direct Link) Botanika FM 2.10.08 Download (full tracklisting can be found here)