ALEK LEE レコード& CD

Review: Alek Lee builds on his long-standing relationship with Antinote by finally coming through with his debut album, You. As one of the most respected DJs operating in Tel Aviv, not to mention playing in bands like Shame On Us and Project Runaway, he's built up a reputation for expansive music knowledge and an instinct for the obscure, which makes him fit in perfectly amongst the Antinote crew. There's a washed-out, surf reverb mood to the likes of 'Eretz Acheret', and his laconic vocal delivery gets embellished by guest spots from the likes of Keren Ilan and Eyal Talmudi. For Balearic sun seekers and reflective road trippers, this is an album rich in feeling to burrow its way into your heart for a lifetime.

Review: This 12" marks the debut of Alek Lee, a previously unheralded producer from Tel Aviv. Happily, Sfarot is a hugely confident and beautifully produced first outing, full of tracks that gleefully defy easy categorization. Take the title track, for example; while its borderline foreboding electronics and bleeping notes scream techno, its tempo and low-slung groove are closer to dub disco. Then there's the choir of what appear to be Japanese children singing over the top. It's a curious combination of elements, but really rather good. The flipside Dub, which replaces the electronics with traditional middle-eastern instrumentation and emphasizes the dub-influenced bottom end, is also superb, while "Harabait" wraps haunting, delay-laden trumpet lines around a similarly shuffling dub disco groove.