Black Ox Orkestar
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Montreal, Canada (2000 – present)
Black Ox Orkestar began in the summer of 2000, the project of four Montreal, Canada musicians exploring their common Jewish heritage for sounds that could speak to them today. Listening to pre-war recordings of Jewish and non-Jewish music from Eastern Europe and the Balkans, they wanted to capture the rawness and emotional intensity they heard there.
They also threw their own musical histories into the mix, their years of playing out-jazz, punk rock, or weird folk, creating not so much a fusion of old and new as a way to tear the old sounds from the past and make them resonate in the present. The band tries to be true to the strangeness and beauty of these archaic songs, translating them into new forms, and writing new material that continues an imaginary tradition still humming in their ears.
On Yiddish
The Yiddish language has always been at the center of the project. A unique mixture of German, Hebrew, and Slavic elements, it was the everyday speech of Eastern European Jews for centuries. The voice of the Jewish political and artistic radicalism of the 19th and early 20th centuries was uttered in Yiddish. Suffragettes, sweatshop activists, anarchists and modernist poets all participated in a global, cosmopolitan culture that followed the exodus of Jews from Eastern Europe. This flowering of modern Yiddish was cut short by the Shoah and by the emergence of the state of Israel, which enshrined Hebrew as a national Jewish language.
On Yiddish
The Yiddish language has always been at the center of the project. A unique mixture of German, Hebrew, and Slavic elements, it was the everyday speech of Eastern European Jews for centuries. The voice of the Jewish political and artistic radicalism of the 19th and early 20th centuries was uttered in Yiddish. Suffragettes, sweatshop activists, anarchists and modernist poets all participated in a global, cosmopolitan culture that followed the exodus of Jews from Eastern Europe. This flowering of modern Yiddish was cut short by the Shoah and by the emergence of the state of Israel, which enshrined Hebrew as a national Jewish language.
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Top Albums
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Nisht Azoy
Black Ox Orkestar
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Ver Tanzt?
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Ver Tanzt
Black Ox OrkestarBuy- Download Album
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Shoutbox
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tsintskaro wrote:
There is absolutely nothing wrong with a bit of healthy discussion, in fact it should be encouraged. That is unless you actually enjoy reading soundbites like "overrated", "underrated", "post-gaze", "sooooo good" or "hipster blah" ad infinitum.
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raquelaquer wrote:
give up the fight about tags and listen to the music, freaks! :) [2]
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myrkkyhammas wrote:
yes. for those of you who don't know: this band does not make klezmer. it's hipster-friendly kind-of-yiddish indie folk blah.
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NINlife wrote:
This would be strange to have sex to
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blindsunden wrote:
Black Ox Orkestar are one of my favorite bands, but I can't stress clearly enough that this is NOT Klezmer. Klezmer consits mostly of dance songs and lively instrumental pieces for weddings and other celebrations. The bands music is also close to a lot of traditional Cretan folk music by "sound", but they predominantly play European Jewish folk.
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joseies wrote:
Wow, it's so fuckin' amazing
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velveteer27 wrote:
Very different kind of Klezmer. Would love some recommendations. All I could find was very cheery stuff, nothing as dark and bleak as this. Would love some more stuff like this.
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plagueship wrote:
can anyone suggest any bands that are comparable in having a modern, experimental, and preferably fairly gloomy take on klezmer / jewish and/or eastern european music in general? thanks! by the way... i would call this 'post-klezmer' myself!!
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impronen wrote:
Good stuff. Should probably look deeper into klezmer in whole.
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iamholgerczukay wrote:
I've had Ver Tanzt forever and have never really listened to it... I've been missing out, this is phenomenal.
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antonio_x wrote:
Greatest CST Records band after Silver Mt Zion... I wish they released another record..
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nicki_psychotic wrote:
i like this music so much! *like it so much* :-)))
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recommendme wrote:
give up the fight about tags and listen to the music, freaks! :)
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ChonoGear wrote:
What if Efrim would sang there... Vocals, unlike the music, really lack the flames of holocaust. But, whatsoever, great band.
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kpt_Yossarian wrote:
god damn, great, but klezmer, not post-rock, people -.-
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Igor_Zukunft wrote:
Sounds very nice, but it's not post-rock for sure.
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1800sseamonster wrote:
Fucking best shit.
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_lonelyness_ wrote:
What a magnificent music is that! Everything but post-rock of course! Eheh.
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AzTeK88 wrote:
Niiice. )
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rinistiltskin wrote:
As an avowed fan of post-rock (as it's traditionally applied to bands such as Do Make Say Think or Mono), I say don't ban the tag, ffs, but use it sparingly and judiciously.
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Recent Activity
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penihi and ricknife added Black Ox Orkestar to their libraries. last week
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KrissQuarme wrote about Sigur Rós – ( ) in Cd'ar. 15 days ago
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Herr_Mayor added Black Ox Orkestar to Herr_Mayor’s library. last month
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Herr_Mayor tagged Black Ox Orkestar with post-rock, folk, jewish and one other tag. last month
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ThePlatanus tagged Black Ox Orkestar with ‘constellation’. last month
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KrissQuarme wrote about Sigur Rós – ( ) in a deleted journal. last month
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theylion and zmeda added Black Ox Orkestar to their libraries. last month
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soestdyik tagged Black Ox Orkestar with arabisch and klezmer. last month
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soestdyik and SabineWe added Black Ox Orkestar to their libraries. last month
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povlja wrote about Sigur Rós – ( ) in a deleted journal. last month
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