Live Review: Laila and Haziz Veraam @ The Zimmer, Tel Aviv [27th November 2014]

Tonight, I come to The Zimmer, the place considered Tel Aviv's hub of the weird and wonderful, to see a band I have not seen in quite some time.

Haziz Veraam

As I enter the Zimmer, albeit a tad early, there's not that many people here but the first act is already setting up. The whole performance area was filled with TV monitors of different shapes and sizes. In front of the monitors was a set up of a sound desk, modules and sound generators. I'm not going to pretend to really know all that gets used in experimental, noise and found sound performances. I still haven't much personal experience with those sorts of things. I studied sound recording, using computer software and a bit of akai sampling and tape looping but not the gizmos that I witness here tonight. Haziz Veraam is an ambient music project from Zimmer owner and half of Hetzi Moakh Al Ketamine. To be honest, I think I missed a good part of this performance. When I came in, I just thought it was a bit of a soundcheck or simply some background ambience as an introduction to the evening. I left the place for a while and came back to a slightly fuller Zimmer. As the ambient music of rapid bass lines played, there was static, spirals and all sorts of weird visuals on the monitors. If I had more of an understanding of how this sort of thing is done (and I will start looking into it), I probably would be more engaged in it. It is however a nice calming start to the night and the installations and the visuals were a nice change to see at a show.
2.5/5

Laila

Tonight's headliners Laila are made up of Maya on drums and lead vocals and Avishag on guitar and backing vocals. I have seen these girls a few times before and I always enjoy them. They play moody, almost sludgey "shoegaze" music. They start off the set with a slow, heavy hitting intro which builds along with Maya's vocals. From the get go, Maya has a lot of emotion in her voice. From what I can make out from the lyrical subject matter, she tends to sing about love and/or unrequited love. Her feelings show through as she spits her lyrics with every breath. Changing her vocals from dreamy and seducing one moment to sharp and aggressive the next, her vocals match their musical stylings. Avishag's guitar playing has similar dynamics, using her pedals to good effect. Avishag also helps with backup vocals, which are nowhere near on par with those of Maya's; it's better than just standing there doing nothing. It is a little disconcerting that the two girls are a fair distance apart on the..er...stage, which is really just the floorspace. It's normally nicer to see a band a little bit closer knit, but musically the girls still manage to keep it together.
Having been a singing drummer myself, I can say first hand that it's not all that easy. If you're doing too much complicated drumming, it can make you run out of breath and disrupt your singing. If you're concentrating too much on the singing, you can get distracted from your drumming. Maya manages to play simple enough yet still effective drum patterns that not only help accentuate Maya's meaningful lyrics, it also frees her up to sing melodically. Some of the songs nearer the end have an almost indie feel with "ooohs" and "wooohs", which in this case I found quite endearing.
Throughout the set, the monitors which were set up help add a bit of atmosphere and theatrics with varying visuals such as cowboys, trains, fish and space. Whether these visuals actually had any real purpose...probably not, but this is expected at a Zimmer show. The barmy lot! During a more frantic part of the set, the monitors flash rapidly, adding to the intensity of their playing. That I found impressive. At the very end of the show, the girls swap roles and end the show with a more heavy, dirge-like piece. It's always good to see band members' expanded talents.
Moving from dreamy, low-fi rock to more harsh and heavy styles, Laila are captivating enough to keep your head a-boppin' and you toes a-tappin'.
4/5

Live Review: Zimmer//Koro Play Swapsies #1, Tel Aviv [Friday 7th November 2014]

Reel Dinazeor

Brutal Gardener

Neta Polturak

Hetzi Moakh Al Ketamine

In Tel Aviv, there are quite a few music venues and bars that do live music. Within the very underground scene, there are two fairly leading venues; Koro and The Zimmer. Koro, even in its original form as both Rogatka and Petiphone, hosts shows week after week spanning several different genres, currently focusing on punk and hardcore, due to the clan of co-owners being from different bands of that ilk. The Zimmer also focuses on the underground scene and tends to go for a more eclectic and surreal taste of music than the Koro tends to. This evening is the first installment in this month's line-up swap between the 2 venues. Prior to the show, I had no details about the acts apart from their names so I went to this open minded.

Hetzi Moakh Al Ketamine (Eng. Half a Brain on Ketamine)

The first act is a 2-man outfit, consisting of a guitarist and a guy sitting down at a table of mixers and, I'm guessing, sound modules. I didn't get a close enough look. From first glance, I thought that his was either going to be digital hardcore, noise or electro. I was ever so slightly surprised. Hetzi Moakh.... have a very soundscape vibe. It's "shoegazing noise soundscape". It was all quite chill. While the guitarist plays dreamy yet also at times menacing melodies, it is accompanied by clicks, beeps, heavy pulses and whirling sounds. I'm still not really much of an expert on this kind of thing, but even though this was experimentation, it sounded seamless and well structured. These guys could easily score some sort of thriller movie or psychological drama. It was a shame I had no idea what the guitarist was singing when on the mic as there was just so much reverb, but apart from that, nothing seemed wrong or out of place. The only issue is that they did what seemed like only 2 separate "compositions" in the space of about 15 minutes and then walked off stage. That's where I and this sort of thing do not really meet. I like a bit of interaction. Other than that, it was an interesting intro to the night.

3/5

Brutal Gardener

Brutal Gardener is one guy with some FX pedals, a sound module and what I later saw to be an oscilloscope. He plays what very much constitutes as noise.....and I don't really get it. It was a good 5 or so minutes of helicopter noises followed by another 5 or so minutes of a washing machine tackling a heavy load and then, like the previous act, he just walks off. I'm sure to the noise connoisseur this guy is a genius, but after being impressed by the first act's ability to transport me into a movie, I just did not get this at all.

1/5

Neta Polturak

Walking back into the stage room, there's a young woman setting up a bunch of guitar pedals and a drum machine. Neta plays trip hop-y indie by looping both guitar parts and her vocals and combining them with cool break beats. Unlike the previous acts, Neta actually has songs. I got a vibe of Sneaker Pimps, Cocteau Twins and My Bloody Valentine. Like the first act, it was a very chilled out set. She definitely knows how to structure songs. Her 3rd song was particularly impressive. It started very beautiful and atmospheric and then layer upon layer built into something simply quite electrifying. This might not be the kind of thing I would listen to on a daily basis or even deliberately go and see live, but I would definitely recommend this to fans of trip hop, electro and even alt rock to check out.
3.5/5   

   

Reel Dinozeor

Reel Dinozeor consists of Amos, the drummer from young punk band Busha!!, Yam, frontman and guitarist of post-hardcore outfit Lunamore, and Amos' brother Yoel, who as far as I'm aware is not in anything else. Keeping in tone with the rest of the evening, Yam was tonight armed with guitar pedals and made a lot of noise. Amos drummed along as his brother shouted and screamed. This is noise with a live drum kit which I, as a drummer, do admire a tad. Being young, I always give "kids" like these guys credit for even getting off their arses and doing something. I give them credit for being creative and doing something "out of the box". Saying that, I was put off by the drumming. I felt the drumming was too repetitive throughout and too simple. I was hoping at times to hear some cool break beats or heavy industrial beats. Hopefully the more time they have to grow as a unit, more creativity, experimentation and even musicianship will emerge.

3/5