Yoav 'Charmed And Strange' album

The acoustic guitar. Like drums or the human voice, this instrument is so common in Western popular music, it's easy to take for granted. Until you hear what it can do in the hands of an artist like Yoav. Charmed And Strange, the debut album from the London-based artist, incorporates myriad sounds: woozy vapor trails; clipped, modern club beats; Middle Eastern flourishes; flashes of quiet introspection reminiscent of Nick Drake; eerie outcries a la Jeff Buckley. All crafted by Yoav, using only his voice, an acoustic guitar, simple effects and treatments… and a lot of imagination.

"If you look at a guitar, there is a standard way you play it. You either pick or play chords." But why stop there? "I'm very into hip-hop and electronic music, and some other sounds you wouldn't necessarily associate with the acoustic guitar." Rather than rely on computers or drum machines, he fashions beats by banging out rhythms on the body of the guitar, looping and processing them. He processes feedback to mimic keyboards. Such experiments, in turn, send Yoav's compositions in unexpected directions, far from standard troubadour fare. "Melodically and rhythmically, everything changes when you move away from picking and strumming."

"Just approaching the guitar differently, seeing all the sounds I can get out of it, has been quite an interesting journey." But, like the album title, Charmed And Strange, the phrase "an interesting journey" only hints at the curious path that has brought Yoav into the public arena. Although born in Israel, he grew up in Cape Town, South Africa. His parents favored classical and traditional music; pop was strictly forbidden. Nevertheless, at the age of nine, Yoav began sneaking off to the neighbors, and soaking up the hits of British radio acts. By twelve, he was quietly practicing on a battered guitar his elder brother had given him while his family slept.

In adolescence, he progressed through phases of devouring modern rock – via all-ages clubs where he heard Rage Against the Machine, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nirvana, and the Cure – and hip-hop and electronic dance music. He began writing his own songs, and, by the time he finished high school, was making demos of them. Determined to pursue his musical ambitions, he relocated to London; although England didn't pan out as quickly as hoped, New York beckoned, with offers of a modest A&R development deal, and he moved across the pond.

His material and talent were enough to secure him gigs at mid-sized venues like CBGB and the Mercury Lounge. But his big epiphany came off-stage, while whiling away an afternoon in Central Park. "For some reason, I started banging out rhythms on my guitar and I really got into it." A class of passing children picked up on his sounds, and began dancing. "I was playing these crazy drum 'n' bass rhythms and they were whirling around me like trance hippies. It was incredible. I felt like I was DJing with my guitar." A window into a whole new realm of writing and playing had opened up.

Charmed And Strange reflects the breadth and depth of Yoav's technical innovation, working in tandem with his distinctive voice as a singer and songwriter. "Club Thing," inspired by nocturnal jaunts through the underbelly of New York nightlife, anchors its dark lyrics to deceptively catchy, hands-in-the-air hooks. On "Beautiful Lie," his hands tease unexpected sounds from the neck and body of the guitar, even as he sings of a longtime relationship turned sour. His rendition of "Where Is My Mind," created in part by singing into the pickup on his guitar, then fashioning his voice into a spectral loop, turns the Pixies classic ever-so-gently on its head.

"The music I listen to – the Prodigy, OutKast, Björk – it isn't necessarily acoustic guitar music. And that is my thing, finding out how you might play those kind of sounds on the acoustic guitar." Beats, in particular, are incredibly important to Yoav. In addition to his initial immersion in hip-hop and dance music in the '90s, he has subsequently been drawn to Indian classical music. ("Trying to duplicate the tabla on acoustic guitar is incredibly humbling," he admits.) Before he returned to England in 2006, Yoav also participated for several years in a long-running Central Park drum circle. "It was guys from all over, from Mali to Ecuador to Morocco, playing all the different rhythms."

When the time finally did come to record his debut full-length, Yoav made a vow to himself. "The one thing that seemed to be a good idea – and it really worked well – was resisting the temptation to use pianos, synthesizers, drum machines, etc., and just doing it all on the guitar. That was the fun part. I probably wouldn't do that on my second record, because growth, evolution, is important. But for this one, we kept it really pure. I've read some people talking about songs on the record, and they don't believe that it was just done on the guitar."

Yoav is not an easy one to pigeonhole, and he probably never will be. "Wherever I've been, I've always been outside of things. And the people I have connected with have always been that way, too. It makes you lonely, but, at the same time, I wouldn't change it. I'm really glad I'm living the life I'm living. Different cultures, different art, different mind sets… I want more." And as he takes them all in, and processes them through his voice, his guitar, and his vision, his Charmed And Strange adventures will continue.

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Yoav - Charmed And Strange