Reviews
MY GOLANY
by Avishai Matia in Ha-Ir, the cultural section of Haaretz
Ofer Golany rips apart Israeli hypocrisy in his seventh album full of magic and overwhelming intensity
Socioeconomic protest seeps slowly into the media (and will soon disappear). Political dissent is lost in the dripping wax of the memorial candles at Rabin square. Everybody and their sister have been transfixed by television and have sold their souls to Sharon at discount prices. And on the other side there's Ofer Golany. If he didn't exist we'd have to invent him. His disc, or to be more precise, his project, that is his piece of life, a revue of overwhelming intensity, full of magic and truth, called "Alternative," which came out in Hebrew (and also in an English version) hits you on the head and kicks you in the stomach, runs toward hasidic rhythms and barks Caananite jazz-blues. Maybe at last we'll wake up.
Much to my surprise, this is already the seventh album by Golany, a brilliant pub singer who stings, insults and rips the deceptive Israeli hypocrisy into tiny pieces (hashish and the flag, cantor and partisan, Judaism and Himmler, the Internet and group sex) with most of his arrows directed at the Israeli Defence Forces. In the accompanying booklet, along with the lyrics, there are quotes, real or imaginary, from documents and testimonies given to various military committees. Golany can be extremely cynical but also full of love. Love of humanity or the love of a woman in twenty-two tracks, like the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet, that intermittently whip and caress, not letting go of the listener to the bitter end.
(translated from the Hebrew)
