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Pharaoh’s Daughter: For Reals
By Elisa / May 15, 2007
Last night’s Pharaoh’s Daughter show at the new Highline Ballroom — a partially Jewcy-endorsed record release party — made me extremely happy to be alive. Basya Schechter is the real deal: when she’s in the room, sniveling shreds of persistent irony pretty much run for cover. Endless categorizing of this crazy new kind of Jewish identification — hey, anyone heard of this new magazine called Heeb? Apparently hip kids today are, like, into being Jewish! Maybe they’ll all marry Jews and reproduce! Look, a menorah full of dildos! OMG, “vodka” rhymes with “latke”! — seem ever more inconsequential and lame in the face of such deeply felt, widely-based, religiously unquantifiable, utterly solid music. Not that it’s an either/or proposition; there’s certainly room for whatever kind of allegedly “hipster” “movement” any Jewish Telegraphic Agency reporter cares to earnestly relay. But it comes down to this: a dozen superb musicians — from Israel, Japan, Switzerland, America, and Africa — led in Hebrew, Ladino, and Arabic song by the magnificent, Yeshiva-educated Schechter, is a triumph of substance and style. That said, Tahl had better be sorry he stood me up.
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Out of the Reeds, from a few years back, is one of my favourite Jewish music CDs. Basya Schechter really gets it, in terms of synthesizing Mizrahi, Sephardic, and African melodies, rhythms and vocal styles, without it sounding trendy or bastardized. I can't wait to hear their upcoming Haran album.
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