1982, days of the Lebanon War, a couple of Israeli leftists formed an activists group called ועד למען בריאות הציבור (Public Health Committee). Among their anarcho activities, they were also making music, playing live in some peace protests.
Those roots led to the formation of מעצ (Ma'atz), a socio-political band, merging ethnic/oriental music with new wave. Minimal Compact would be the first thing to come to mind, but influences are varied from Gang of Four to Yemenite folk.
Based in Tel Aviv, yet they weren't really part of the local new wave scene. They didn't perform often and when they did it was mostly on students festivals in colleges and less in clubs.
Ilana Tzabari (Bass, Vocals), Ziv Lewis (Synth), Hezi Davidian (Guitar), Lior Saar (Bass, Drum Machine). Also contributed in the group's early days were Nevo Svorai (Vocals) and Ido Amin (Drums).
The bandcamp up above is their first and only cassette, self released on February 1988. 200 copies were initially pressed by their own "label" called "לא BUDGET" (לא=No). Later sources say about a 1000 were sold, I think it's a bit exaggerated, but probably more were pressed indeed. Personally I think it's a cool album, but not something I listen to often, other than the first track which is a straight-up classic with its iconic samples (Hebrew needed) and guitar work. Track 8 is also a personal favorite, but I'll always come back to a cover made by the blog sweethearts Mujahideen.
In 2001 it was re-released by Earsay on CD with bonus tracks. Those are not on the bandcamp version so I got you.
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| Ilana Tzabari, Hezi Davidian, Lior Saar, Ziv Lewis |
מעצ - שבת אחים קטעי בונוס / Ma'atz - Brotherhood Bonus Tracks
10. הודי
11. לעבודה ולמלאכה
12. שישי אינסטרומנטל
13. עיזים
14. שעונים
15. קן בין עירוני
16. מוצקים
17. Jc Hopes
18. Remix השעון ההיסטורי
Now, the real intention of this long planned post (since this blog formation pretty much, like most other posts), is to share rare demos that I have on my PC. I can't remember how I got these. I'm sure it'll interest some local readers of this blog who probably enjoy this band more than I do. I know the band has recorded a full length worth of materials with Nevo, I reckon this is it. 1985-ish recordings, maybe someone will correct me. I left the titles as they were in the original files.
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| Tzabari, Saar, Davidian, Lewis Photo by Dvora Gruda |
מעצ - סקיצות / Ma'atz - Demo
1. מוצקים [full version of track 16 above]
2. עיזים [full version of track 13 above]
3. גטס
4. תורכי [early version of אילמז]
5. ערבי
6. קונסולה [early version of שבת אחים]
7. טבול ראש [early version of טבול ראש בחול]
8. על האדמה
9. פלייבק [early version of השעון ההיסטורי]
In 2023 Nevo also uploaded a collection of his demos with the band to his own bandcamp:
First track here is an early version of a song that Nevo's later group (called Israel) will play.
The following are the same as in the demo I uploaded (some are slightly different versions):
3 is track 5, 4 is track 8, 5 is track 2, 6 is track 7, 7 is track 1.
If you wanna see some videos documentation, they participated in an indie film called Tiftuf directed by Danny Yitzhaki (Tzabari's husband at some point), where you can catch them in action in a couple of scenes.
