האחים

"Rhythm is an international culture. It connects between our youth and the youth of the world. It bridges across borders and oceans. Its language is universal." These words, taken from the speech given by MP Uri Avneri at the opening of the first Rhythm Festival, which took place in November 1968 at the Cinerama club in Tel-Aviv, and also appear on the back cover of the record which documented the event (released by Hed-Arzi records in 1969) - are the spirit of this compilation. The worldwide musical boom of 1967 reached Israel on the airwaves of the just-then established radio station Ha-gal Ha-kal (The Light Wave), which combined between rock bands like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones with James Brown's soul music and the pop of Tom Jones, as the young country of Israel, only 20 years old and at the peak of the post Six-Day War euphoria, imagined itself becoming part of the big world via the radio and the dance floors.

Jaffa, located deep in the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea, is among the oldest port cities in the world. Its strategic location on the silk road, at the meeting point of three continents, has brought to its door many courters and conquerors, stretching from early as the Egyptians and the Romans, to the Ottoman and British empires, and up to the present day. With the establishment of the state of Israel and the consequential arrival of large waves of immigrants, Jaffa was even further floated with a diversity of cultures and their customs. Among these was the Greek "taverna" culture, arriving from the nearby port of Thessaloniki and realized in dozens of taverns, which alongside the serving of food and drinks, had a live show every night. Combined together, this was the "hafla".

The political and economic stagnation which characterized Israel during the eighties was manifested in a series of tribulations: the Lebanon war which broke in 82' and extended years beyond the decade ended; the first Intifada which lit up in 87'; a rising inflation; and indecisive elections that led to a series of national unity governments, which were only an intermediate stage of the larger political shift, beginning with the turnover of 77'. This depressing climate turned Israel's youth into an adequate receptor for the anti-establishment punk culture which developed in the Anglo-Saxon world during the mid-seventies. They channeled its rebellious ethos and musical rawness into the genres of their time, which had already evolved from the basic forms of punk into post-punk, new wave and their variations.

The nineties brought an assortment of new opportunities for music fans in the geographical peripheries of the world. At the beginning of the decade, it was cable TV, and specifically MTV, with its array of specialist genre shows; and on the decade’s other end was the internet, which began entering into every home. In Israel, Tower Records opened local branches, and for a while, a constant stream of international bands hit our shores. Alongside the already existing music stores, then still open even in the smaller cities, and the wide variety of radio shows with their many well-clued presenters - added up to a great abundance, though still not such that spilled into the overload of nowadays.