Sarda Sarda

This debut album was born of a serendipitous encounter in a tattoo studio between a record label’s talent scout and a renowned tattoo artist and painter. The latter’s musical moonlighting was impressive enough to get him signed on the spot. Or Kantor’s base in Jaffa on the southern Mediterranean sea suffuses his music. His sultry surf guitar evokes a coastal cool cut with a broody energy. Carlos Santana comes to mind on more animated offerings like ‘Gibraltar Rock’, while North African grooves are prominent on tracks like ‘Sarda Sarda’. The record has a powerful retro feel. At times overpowering. It could soundtrack a Tarantino film set in a 1970s sepia haze of liberally unbuttoned shirts, hirsute chests and sundrenched misadventures. Or Kantor is on the way to honing hooks as indelible as his tattoos.