Ouzo Bazooka

Ouzo Bazooka return with their spanking new fifth album 'Dalya', and it's a real aural joy, two sides of solid tracks, all in the band's uniquely Middle Eastern flavoured psyche. As we've come to expect from Tel Aviv's premier psyche rock minstrels Ouzo Bazooka, Dalya is pure quality by every metric. There's a smorgasbord psyche infused flavours to enjoy, and more beyond, a smidge of prog, a sniff of pop, a hint of something jazzy, 'Monsters' perfectly paced hypnotic rhythm has an air of folk to it, whilst 'Million years of Light' and 'It's a Menace' have a nice electronica feel to them. If there's one thing Dalya has in oodles its an uplifting energy, I defy you not to find yourself nodding, swaying, foot tapping or in some way moving to the captivating beat of this album! Take 'Kruv', made to move to, cool eastern funkiness with a thread of lovely 60's aesthetic... great live I'd imagine. Dalya is a fabulous album. Consummate musicians one and all, Ouzo Bazooka are a tight sounding outfit with a rich sound exquisitely blending strands of psychedelic music with organic middle eastern influences to create something immensely listen-able and original, and they just get better. It's a lovely clean pressing too, fantastic sound quality, on a wonderful purple/black splatter on opaque clear vinyl, all beautifully packaged.  Everyone needs some Ouzo Bazooka in their music collection, check them out here or here, guaranteed not to disappoint.

Ouzo Bazooka's Songs from 1001 Nights

Ouzo Bazooka are back with their third album, Songs from 1001 Nights, and as you'd imagine, it's a lovely listen. It arrived at my door this morning and took only moments to find itself spinning. 'Songs from 1001 Nights' keeps bands reputation for producing great psych waxings flying high, a deep rich psych sound which oozes the exotic taking you on a magical psychedelic journey through foreign climes. Though this time on a slightly different tangent. The opening track '1001 Night' is a slow droney number, setting the feel of the album as a whole, it has a hypnotic feel to it, you could imagine yourself wandering tripped out through an kasbah or something to it. While 'Nile Fever' has the feel of a movie soundtrack. On side 2 I particularly enjoyed 'Turkum', again there's a soundtrack feel to it as well as something of the exotic. The whole album has quite a laid back late evening feel to it, check it out. Although different in sound to the bands previous releases, still infused in all the tracks are the bands cultural and regional DNA, and I think that lends Ozuo Bazooka's sound something really original and warm, they've created a unique fusion of sounds. If you get a chance to see Ouzo Bazooka playing live take the opportunity, I've only seen them once, and it was a smashing performance.

A note of amendment.
It's come to my attention since I initially wrote this, that I've been listening to the album at the wrong speed. Not once, no, not twice, no, but on several occasions. Now I realise, it's obvious....now I realise! Yes, I know, I'm a chump, and it renders my musings on 'Songs from 1001 Nights' the ramblings of a mental. Though it does show that some music can be played and enjoyed at the wrong speed (or as I'm going to suggest, a 'different' speed) and still be well worth listening to. I enjoyed the album I thought I heard, I felt it had merit, really droney merit in retrospect. But still. I was going to delete this post, then thought, naw. So, I'm looking at it positively, now I've got 2 versions of an album for the price of one. Stop taking the piss, I didn't have to tell you.

Ouzo Bazooka @ The Anvil, Bournemouth

I'll just say from the start, wow! From the moment Ouzo Bazooka began to play and I heard Dani Ever HaDani hit the keys, I knew I was going to love Ouzo Bazooka. I wasn't wrong. Ouzo Bazooka are a four piece out of Tel Aviv who describe themselves as Mediterranean psych rock, I'll just describe them as bloody marvellous. Actually their description is apt, the markers of psych and rock are all definitely present, but also a very distinctive cultural signature which marks their psychedelic sound out as unique. Ouzo Bazooka are: Uri Kinrot on lead vocals and guitar who makes a great front man, Adam Schefflan on bass who delivers some stirling bass work, as does Ira Raviv on drums, who looked tripped out by the whole thing, and Dani Ever HaDani on keyboards, I really loved Dani's keyboard sounds. They're all great musicians. Every track was a perfect package of psych bundled up in a original way, with each track delivered via a clean tight sound. Many of the tracks were from their latest album 'Simoom' (of which I picked up a copy at the gig) which is pure bliss and has been played several times already. My only complaint is that 'Simoom' doesn't properly convey the energy of the band as I experienced them live. Though that's a regular complaint of mine, I do love the energy of live music. I will certainly get out to see them again if they're playing in these parts. Ouzo Bazooka, a really pleasant find, loved them.

Check them out:
https://ouzobazooka.bandcamp.com/