Uriel – Culture shift

2 reviews for Uriel – Culture shift

1. 

   Sylvain Lupari / Guts Of Darkness – 2022-11-22

   Sometimes, it happens that we hear a completely unexpected album. A surprising album which bewitches and subjugates, with a rich sound fauna and a most realistic tribal approach. Israeli synthesist, Uriel proposes us a musical journey which unfolds as a soundtrack about the fairy country of 1001 nights.
   An Arabian flute rises behind a veil swept by sand dusts. A beautiful flute which will be one of the main elements of this sound adventure filled of rhythms sometimes furious and sometimes tinted with an Arabian romantic touch. Hesitating, it flirts with an acoustic guitar and tribal percussions of the Middle East style, before fading to leave all the room to percussions which beat a heavy and sharp rhythm, very near techno style, under strikes of bows of which a mellotron feeds of its violin orchestrations and charming tribal flutes.

   Ancient Roots is the beginning of an epic journey where Uriel proposes us diversified rhythms on a sound pattern which reflects the harmonies of the peoples of dunes. The mellotron, as much with violin strings as with flute breaths, is of a romantic tenderness worthy of the most beautiful landscapes and the poetry from Lawrence of Arabia. Weaved on a sound collage of 61 minutes, Culture Shift is divided into 11 tracks which join all, as much in the harmonies as in the sharp rhythms and the atmospheric moments.If Ancient Roots boils on hybrid technoid rhythms, like Kalanshu Sands, Cultural Dynasty Part I pours into mellotrnonned tenderness, while Mountain Secrets leads us in a dramatic epic with heavy orchestrations which sound like certain Hans Zimmer‘s soundtracks. Magic with its camels bellows, Camel Convoy is a tribal trance filled of singing exercises by goddesses of sands on highly upbeat tribal percussions and a superb mellotron which espouses a subtle choir from nymphs of dunes. A splendid, nervous and strongly hallucinogenic track with its magnificent sitar which has hard times following those furious percussions. Softer and poetic, Oasis, Crystal Fields and Morning Sunflowers abound in hooking melodies which slowly move on beautiful mellotrons and chords of piano and nostalgic guitars which spawn among tribal percussions to assorted cadences. Cultural Dynasty Part II goes back in the melodious and dramatic frescoes of Part I as well as Mountain Secrets and Tribal Ceremony, while Distant Skies ends with a hyper melodious approach of which the breaths of an electric guitar take us away from the Arabian magic that moulds Cultural Shift of its 10 tracks.

   Boiling rhythms on a fictional Middle East pattern, carpeted of a gargantuan appetite for a loud rhythmic on sequences crushed by diversified musical orientations; Uriels Culture Shift is a magnificent brainwave which is going to please to fans of world music, techno and even electronic, because the sound search there is amazing. One of the big 2008 surprises that passed under my ears. A shame, but its never too late

   2009. Sylvain Lupari / Guts Of Darkness

2. 

   CDS – 2022-11-22

   CULTURE SHIFT (Phenomenal Code Indigo & Hans Zimmer influenced blend of Electronica & World Music)
   Coming from a musician quoted as being influenced by Code Indigo and Hans Zimmer, for me, ‘Culture Shift’ is one of the most impressive synth / world crossover debut albums I’ve experienced since Kitaro‘s ‘Silk Road’ back in the very early 80’s!

   Uriel‘s blending of synthesizer generated melodic atmospheres and hypnotic percussion sounds is fresh and totally magical – I was transfixed when just one play took me off to another new place, with surely many more new fantastic places to be discovered with each new airing to come.But before I go into further detail about ‘Culture Shift’, because the name URIEL is new to us all, here is a little bit about his background, which should help you understand where he is musically” coming from…
   Uriel Yehezkel was born in 1984 and grew up in Jerusalem. He started making music at the age of fifteen