Today we’d like to feature Israel’s very own music master, Offer Nissim. Above he’s performing live with Maya in israel and below you’ll find an interview and article with and about our beloved Nissim. Enjoy!

Offer Nissim Interview

From DJ Ron Slomowicz,
Your Guide to Dance Music / Electronica.
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From Israel, widely known for its goa trance and progressive scenes, Offer Nissim is gaining international attention for his tribal house sounds. Known for his work with Eurovision contest winner Dana International, Offer’s productions with the singer Maya and remix work led to a fateful meeting with Peter Rauhofer. Nissim’s debut artist album First Time was recently released in the US on Star 69 Records.

DJ Ron Slomowicz: You just got back from Brazil, what kind of event were you playing for?
Offer Nissim: It was a big party in Sao Paulo and the crowd was great. They are really warm people and it was a great night with good energy. The place was called Enjoy.

RS: Had you played down there before?
Offer Nissim: No, it was the first time that I’d played in Brazil.

RS: Was the crowd different than your normal crowd in Israel?
Offer Nissim: Israeli people are really similar to the Brazilians because they have the same temperament. They are really the same. So if you ask me how it was to work in front of the Israeli crowd, they are really similar to a Brazilian crowd, it’s the same.

RS: How about when you played in the US for Pride Festival, was that also similar?
Offer Nissim: No. The crowds in New York are different. They give respect in other ways and behave more gently, I don’t know how to explain it. They enjoy the party but they are cooler, not too excited, as opposed to the South American people who lose control.

RS: Was that your first time playing in the United States?
Offer Nissim: Yes, it was the first time. I really enjoyed playing with Peter and it was really an honor to play with him, so I enjoyed every second. If you ask me where I was most excited to be, it was in Spirit to play with Peter. Everything was for me more intense, I was more energized with each second and move that I felt in the booth. It was very important to me to be happy with this experience.

For the rest click here

From Remix…

OFFER NISSIM
By Amit Cotler

If you took a walk in Manhattan’s streets during the past two years, you most likely passed by some signs inviting you to one of Offer Nissim’s parties in New York City. But although Nissim is a well-known DJ in the U.S. nowadays, his heart and home are still placed 5,683 miles from the Big Apple, in Tel Aviv, Israel — his home city where he’s played for more than 20 years.

Get the rest here.

Madonna’s back for more. She and hubby Guy Ritchie will be traveling to Israel to celebrate Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur at the Kabbalah Center in Tel Aviv for the second year in a row. Also joining are first-timers Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher, along with 3,000 students from more than 21 countries.

Way to spread the mystical love.

Vered, the New-York based Israeli singer-songwriter, is set to unveil her third album this September. The indie, folk-rock musician definitely knows how to draw a crowd with her free-spirited acoustic tunes.

In one of her recent performances at a venue in downtown Manhattan, Vered joked onstage about the hassle of having to renew her Israeli passport that week. And to the delight of every man in the room, she added: “Yes, I am Israeli. And I was in the army.” The entire crowd clapped and cheered. Somehow, that army bit always does the trick.

Check out Vered’s MySpace page to sample some tracks from her unreleased 2007 album.

A couple of weeks ago thousands of New Yorkers enjoyed an amazing concert by Idan Raichel in Central Park. The place was packed and lots of my friends were, unfortunately, turned away extremely distressed for not making it. This comes to show the people’s thirst for new and different kinds of music coming from near or far, making the world smaller and bringing people closer.

The New York Times, in an article on world music and the way it has broken free from geographic isolation and has been reaching people all over, is has chosen “The Idan Raichel Project” among the best world music CDs of the year. Here is what they have to say about it…

” ‘THE IDAN RAICHEL PROJECT’ (Cumbancha)
The Idan Raichel Project was a huge hit in Israel for good reason: it envisions a modern, multicultural nation where voices of young and old, Ethiopian and Yemenite, are all heard in songs devoted to love and tolerance. Idan Raichel is the keyboardist, songwriter and producer behind the scenes, and he’s clearly as familiar with Peter Gabriel as with Middle Eastern traditions. His arrangements bind the voices together in somber minor-mode anthems paced by electronic beats, earnestly seeking to uplift.”

The NYT has an awesome piece on the Israeli pop-rock scene thriving amidst the rocket attacks on our embattled Israeli city of Sderot. We think the piece does a good job capturing the reality of these kids terrible situation. Here’s a link to the Teapacks story.

Give Them Shelter: Where Rockets, and Drums, Go Boom

By JENNIFER MEDINA
Published: April 27, 2007

SDEROT, Israel — The underground Israeli pop-rock music scene seems to start here, in a bomb shelter set in the center of town.It does not matter how loudly the teenagers hammer at their drums or pluck at the guitars; the green tin that is meant to protect residents from incoming rockets also works as a sound barrier for the funky music.

It is not unusual for Israeli towns to turn shelters into community centers of some sort. But Sderot, barely a mile from the Gaza Strip, is one of the few cities where such shelters are still used frequently.

We have written about Save a Child’s Heart before at isrealli.org. Come to think of it, we have also written about Idan Raichel .

But the following diary entry, which was published on Ynet News was so moving, we figured you would want to revisit both of these Israeli entities again.

In the following article, Raichel documents the events of a mercy mission that he takes part in together with child cardiologists, traveling to Addis, Ethiopia and Kigali, Rwanda.

I suggest that before reading it, you go to Idan’s MySpace page and play the song “Boee Come with Me” as background music for the article. You’ll see why, exactly, when you get to the end.

Oh, and the next time Idan Raichel comes to a city near you, why don’t you give YOUR heart a boost, and try to catch the show!

In the wake of the recent Eurovision controversy, we wanted to highlight the recent comeback of one of Israel’s past winners- Dana International. The clip above is from Eurovision 1998 when she won.

Here’s the dibs from YNET on her latest release:

Eurovision winner makes comeback

Israeli singer Dana International releases first single after five-year break from business

Or Barnea

Former Eurovision winner, Dana International, will release her first album in five years this summer. Her latest single, “It’s all for the better”, was released Tuesday. Listen to it first here, on Ynetnews.

Dana is currently working on her new album, which includes songs written and composed by Dana herself.

Do you live in the great city of Manhattan? NO? Well, perhaps you’ll be visiting on March 23rd?

If that’s the case, you’ll be among the lucky humans who will have the chance to see Israeli band missFlag live in concert at the Lion’s Den in Nolita.

If you haven’t heard about them yet, missFlag is an Indie band from Jerusalem, Israel. The best part about them, aside from the music, is that they play in English.

While the band is reluctant to categorize their music into any particular genre the LA TIMES says missFlag “covers some of the same ground as Coldplay with the kind of sing-along choruses that could appeal to a large audience”. So there’s that.

Check out their MySpace site at www.myspace.com/missflag
missFlag was voted #1 on MySpace for 4 consecutive weeks by the MySpace community.

DETAILS: Catch missFlag next Friday, March 23rd, at 9:30 pm at the LION’S DEN, 214 Sullivan Street, Between Bleecker and West 3rd.
COVER CHARGE: $10. Mention missFlag at the door.

Not convinced? Watch their video on YouTube .

The Beatles never performed in Israel but the son of legendary John Lennon, Sean, will be performing on March 10th at the Hangar in Tel Aviv. Sean Lennon is on a tour promoting his second album titled “Friendly Fire” 8 years after the release of his first album “Into the Sun” in 1998. His latest album has been well received in Israel and especially “Parachute” which is played heavily by local radio stations.

Sean recently gave a good interesting interview to the Jerusalem Post in which he talks about his first music lessons, his childhood, his relation with his mother Yoko Ono, about how he finds it easy to express personal thoughts in his songs. As for Israel, he says that it “is for him- and to so many people- one of the most important points on the whole planet. I feel really lucky that I get to come to places like this as part of my work”.

Here’s the story from the JPOST.