Golem: Tanz

by George W. Harris • July 17, 2014 •

Think you’ve heard klezmer music before? This isn’t your Zayde’s klezmer music, my friend! The team of Golem consists of Annette Ezekial Kogan/v-acc,Aaron Diskin/voc, Jeremy Brown/vio, Curtis hasselbring/tb, Taylor Bergren-Chrisman/b, Tim Monaghan/dr (what’s a goy doing here?!?) and Brandon Seabrook/g. Traditional sounds and beats from the shtetl mix with rock and dance club music quite freely here, putting the “poke” back in “polka.”Frenetic beats bounce off the walls on pieces such as “Tanz” and “Vodka is Poison” while drama is milked for all its worth on the accordion on “Mikva Bath” and the Russian themed “Tum Balalaika.” Earthy vocals are provided by Kogan throughout, as on the passionate “Odessa” and you’ll want to grab hand in the circle on “Love You All The Time” and let out a couple of hoots between grapevines. Build up a sweat on this one!