HOT FUR

Nice debut by Israeli band, led by Lior Frenkel and a group of talented, young musicians. The style is ZAPPA-oriented, with a touch of 80's KING CRIMSON thrown in for good measure. You have to know Hebrew to fully grasp the album's concept, but the melodies and arrangements are good anyhow.

I would recommend this album to Israeli prog-heads with a good sense of humor, and with a certain degree to tolerance towards Jazz-Rock in general. The album takes several spins in order to "get" the attitude, and some of the lyrics are not that mature, but it's enjoyable music with great double-guitar work and interesting harmonies.

Why only three stars? 1) I know they can do better than that 2) People who don't speak Hebrew will find the lyrics impossible to comprehend 3) There's a lot of amazing music out there 4) The fact that I live in Israel (Tel-Aviv) doesn't mean I don't know to take things into proportions...

Honestly, there is a sense of missing out while listening to this album. Lior Frenkel, leader of Hot Fur deserves a lot more. A talented artist, great melodist, and a worth guitarist and composer, who knows how to capture a sort of 'Israeli spirit' in his music, and to deliver it with a lot of grace, while touching some goodies as jazz, progressive, and folk 'desert' music. So what's the problem? Well, this album is in fact a sketches album and not a completed product. No Israeli label was ready to take this band, invest money on them in order to make a better product and publish it - shame on them. The honored French label Musea took these sketches at last and published the CD. The main problems are in sound and production. Personally I call this sound 'cheap digital'; no feel of acoustic room, and no good balance. But they could achieve a lot more. There are very good instrumentalists here, excellent wind instruments, very well drums, good vocalist (Yael Kraus) and Lior himself. I'm quite sure that they sound better on stage.

Highlights are: 'Moon', great song with a very moving melody and a good construction. A little more care at the production level could turn it to be an Israeli classic IMO. 'Adventure in Space' got a nice groove with jazzy melody; 'Johnny Baby's Nightmare' is a scary minimalism, and 'Heretz' (country of [&*!#] ?) is 11 minutes track with spoken text, ironic and satirical. Probably this is an allegory about a country that sends it's sons to the army and after that eats them. Near the end of the song comes an ancient melody, beautifully sung by Noa Frenkel, Lior's sister, which gained her own reputation as a dominant classical singer.

The other tracks are not as good as those three, but even in the lower quality tracks one can hear the strictness on composition and execution qualities. I think it's more that the lower quality tracks are too whimsical or 'nonsense' for me. (And I would dare to say, not just for me).

So to summarize it, personally I enjoy the album's better moments, survive the less good moments, and get annoyed from the sound and production. Under this situation I cannot recommend it for a wide audience. So the rating for PA is 2 stars, and I really would like to get a better product from this band.

Recommended for Hot Fur fans, and collectors of Israeli progressive or artistic music.