I know I sound like a Tzadik fanboy sometimes because half of the shit we feature on here is from Tzadik, but I really admire their constant output of noteworthy stuff. Koby Israelite’s new album on Tzadik’s Radical Jewish Series is a genre breaker. In his bio he mentions that he likes music that incorporate different sounds and genres in his music, and who else but Mr. Zorn would like that.

This is his third Tzadik album, and Koby’s quartet interprets songs picked by Zorn from his Book of Angels songs. There’s lots of instrumental Jewish music, klezmer, rock, jazz, gypsy music and even metal in some songs. If you don’t like eclectic stuff like this, just listen to the 2:20 attack on Czgadi, and 2:45 from Khabiel where I hear them playing a variation of Dick Dale’s Pulp Fiction theme song (or am I having an aural hallucination?). The bio says, Naked City, Zappa, Taraf de Haidouks and Fantomas all rolled into one, and I can do nothing but agree.

Koby Israelite - Czgadi
Koby Israelite - Khabiel
John Zorn’s Masada - Bith Aneth