Yoav
Charmed and Strange (Verve Forecast)
ESSENTIAL "Club Thing"
At first listen, you may mistake Yoav for a DJ, but there are no turntables or synthesizers - it's just a man and his guitar. Yoav creates a pseudo backup band by looping his voice and guitar to pulse his music forward. "Adore Adore," the opening track, is mysterious yet infectious, with Yoav plucking haunting minor guitar chords over an echoing beat created by hitting the body of an acoustic guitar. The simple chords soon burst into a musical backdrop filled with looping drumbeats and bass (all created on his guitar) and supporting vocals that mimic those of Duncan Sheik. "Wake Up" and "Sometimes" take cues from hip-hop and invoke a Middle Eastern flavor with exotic, gyrating beats. On "Live," a creeping guitar that sounds like a violin sneaks past aggressive vocals, but the middle of the song is like the calm of a storm where he sings over piano-like melodies he creates using reverb and feedback. Yoav proves that a guitar and his voice are the only instruments you really need to make powerful, versatile music. [Amy Farnsworth]
