Josef Josef

Eric Slabiak, the driving force behind Josef Josef, was for many years part of Les Yeux Noirs alongside his brother Olivier. Over the course of 19 years they and their band released numerous albums and gave almost 1,300 concerts. That experience shows on this eponymous album of accomplished klezmer and Yiddish music led by Slabiak and many of the same bandmates from his former group. Dario Ivkovic on the accordion captures the mournful spirit so inherent to klezmer, and Slabiak's violin playing soars alongside it. The tracks neatly switch between upbeat Yiddish pop and slow melancholy, harbouring the two poles of the Yiddish condition.

There are moments where this traditional style is broken. On ‘Sheyn Vi Di Levone’, the slow build of electric guitar and bass could be mistaken for a post-rock track (perhaps the first ever instance of Yiddish post-rock), while on ‘Unter Dayne Vayse Shtern’, the rock rhythm underneath the sharp violin flourishes gives the track a novel feel. These moments are too far and few between, however, leaving the music feeling a little too straightforward. Accomplished as it may be, it feels as though Slabiak and his veteran team don't experiment as much as they have shown themselves capable of doing.