Search - Ahvak :: Ahvak

Israel's progressive rock acme.

Lord Chimp | Monkey World | 02/24/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This Israeli band didn't look particularly interesting to me at first, despite Dave Kerman's involvement. I moved on to other things, new cds, and kind of forgot all about Ahvak. Then I noticed their self-titled album was generating some huge buzz among avant-rock fanatics and so I ended up buying it. I ended up listening to it 12 times in three days, which is something I rarely do. Someone should slap me for not buying it right away, because it's simply outstanding.The lineup consists of guitars, bass, pianos & keyboards, woodwinds, and drums. Surprisingly, the dominant instrument seems to be the studio. Udi Koomran's omnipresent computer manipulations bring an incredible dynamic and depth to the music, but for all the alterations it still sounds warm and real and tasteful rather than gimmicky and cheap. Now, imagine a Stravinsky drawing from the Middle East and composing and arranging for a chamber rock ensemble. The music is propulsive and tonally rich, pushing compositional qualities beyond traditional rock idioms much like Rock-in-Opposition artists and bands like Thinking Plague. As rock music planted in modernism, the music is abundantly dissonant and polyphonic, with ingenious motivic development. The band often returns to certain motifs, but they are always somehow changed and sometimes difficult to recognize. Compositionally, Ahvak's unique brand of rock music is in the same echelon as Univers Zero and Mike Johnson, although revealing different inspirations.The bulk of the album is taken up by the four lengthy pieces, two of which, "Yawners" and "Ahvak", are 13 and 16 minutes respectively. The unbelievable epic "Ahvak" is the centerpiece of the album. Dark, complex, and grittily symphonic, Ahvak uses an array of motifs to build towards a mammoth crescendo of long violent ostinato staggered by odd-meter drum and bass grooves. "Bertha" can only be described as rhythmically irregular hyper-textural prog. "Vivisection" is the ominous opener, with eerie guitars being shifted between channels before Middle Eastern percussion and web of synths, flutes, and electric guitars enter with textural chromatic lines. Then a long, quiet, electronically modified middle section unfolds, with voices, strange creaking sounds, and distant, processed winds repeating a three-note phrase as the acoustic guitars from the beginning reappear. Then it goes into a massive atonal rock-out at the end, with a distorted folk-melody sliced and diced by atonal piano. The other pieces are shorter ones, like the sparse, quasi-tonal pointillism of "Regaim" (for piano and winds), or "Pirzool", which is 55 seconds of electronics, percussion, and evil vocals.The music, while extremely complex and fastidiously composed, still evokes mysterious and lasting images. Each song is a journey.Don't be dumb like me. Buy it; the sooner you have _Ahvak_ in your collection the happier you will be. This is the highpoint of Israeli rock music, and should be a worthy standard bearer for 21st century avant-rock, along with Thinking Plague."

Top-Notch modern progressive rock from Israel

Uri Breitman | Tel Aviv, Israel | 01/13/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"As an Israeli prog-head, I didn't know what to expect from this group. The local prog scene is pretty small and mediocre. However, this album is (in my opinion) simply the most impressive and mature progressive rock album ever made in this violant country. It combines high standards of compositional skills, thoughtful arranagments, excellent musical production (Udi Koomeran's computer work deserves many compliments), intricate playing, and a deep understanding of the RIO (Rock in Opposition) principles and heritage.
I'd recommend this project to anyone who gets a kick out of bands like Univers Zero, Thinking Plague & Miriodor. I gave it 4 stars because: A) 5 stars seems too 'fanboy'-ish to me B) The cover art is not very good C) Tracks 3 & 7 are pretty useless, and I don't think highly of them D) If I'll give them 5 stars, they'll think they're perfect :-)"