［Description］

This year's (2014) solo project album by Uri Brauner Kinrot, leader/guitarist of the Mediterranean surf rock band that set Fuji Rock on fire, "Boom Pam"!

With loud guitars and English vocals, a simple yet heavy rock sound, and melodies and riffs that evoke the hot winds of the Middle East.
A sound from Israel in the 2010s echoing bands like the Black Keys, White Stripes, Tinariwen, and Turkey's BaBa ZuLa!

(From the Salam Unagami liner notes)
This summer, Boom Pam, the Mediterranean surf rock band from Israel, made their second visit to Japan. I've been following them for some time, and I joined them between the Fuji Rock Festival and their two Tokyo shows. It was a period when the conflict between Israel and the Gaza Strip was escalating. Every time on stage, UBK would say, "I wish for peace for both Israel and Palestine" never forgetting to raise a double peace sign with both hands. At Fuji Rock, guitarist Uri Brauner Kinrot (hereinafter "UBK") went shirtless, descended into the audience from the stage, and strummed his guitar right in the middle of the crowd. The Fuji Rock effect quickly caused a buzz on Twitter, and it became not uncommon to hear their songs on radios here and there, or in cafes in the heart of the city.

After the Tokyo shows, in the dressing room, UBK handed me the just completed new project album OUZO BAZOOKA, saying, "It's more rock-oriented than Boom Pam, please give it a listen."

In the monochrome album jacket photo, UBK is wild-haired, playing the guitar with an ecstatic expression... a classic rock guitarist's album jacket. "OUZO BAZOOKA" is a great name! "OUZO" is a Greek anise-flavored liqueur known to turn cloudy when water is added, similar to Turkey's Raki, France's Pastis, or Pernod. In Israel, with its many Greek immigrants, it's a common drink. Add "BAZOOKA" to that, and you've got something akin to Asakusa's Electric Blanket or Korea's Bomb Liquor—drink it, and you're sure to be hit hard.

That exotic and wild name embodies the sound itself. The first track, "I Got You" starts with heavy riffs on a fuzz guitar. However, there are no instrumental melodies on the guitar, which is a characteristic of Boom Pam, and the song quickly transitions into vocals. Moreover, the lyrics are in English, and another characteristic of Boom Pam, the tuba, is absent. A listen reveals a rough, simple garage rock sound reminiscent of American bands like the Black Keys or The White Stripes. However, in the second track, "Desert Love", the rhythm of the Middle Eastern belly dance, "Maqsum," appears with a "do tan ta don-tan"* and melodies and rhythms from the Middle East, Greece, and Mizrahi (Middle Eastern-Caucasian Jewish immigrants) peek through here and there. This is the unique personality of UBK, who never forgets his roots in Israel and the Mediterranean. This is seriously cool!

* (“do(n)” is an onomatopoeic word of bass drum, and “ta(n)” is snare or clap.”)