Zingale - Peace (1977)

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The band was created by David Bachar and Yonathan "Johnny" Stern, though the band leader was bassist Udi Tamir who could be considered the creative force within the band. The lineup was further augmented by the arrival of drummer David Shanan, guitarist Efrayim Barak and as mentioned above, bassist Udi Tamir... Thus the band set out to record their first album and by the end of 1975, they had managed to finish their recordings. Most of the inspirations for the music came from the 1974 Yom Kippur war, whose overtones can be heard throughout most of the album tracks. Furthermore the band's future seemed to be promising as the president of Decca Records was a personal friend of Zingale's producer Yaacov Bachar and through him they managed to get a European tour sponsored as well as the possibility of a recording contract and distribution via the label. However, just when everything seemed to be going along fine, the Decca president had a heart attack and all plans had to be shelved... In 1977, the band's debut album, titled Peace, was finally released in a limited edition, making it one of progressive rock's more valuable collector's items, though the band split up soon after the album release due to differences over musical direction and the recordings and mixes of the Hebrew album, which in turn was never finished. The debut and only album from Zingale is indeed a rarity, both in vinyl as well as in its CD version. The CD was only released as a limited edition of 750 copies... There are 2 distinct vinyl versions of the album, both of which have different track listings. The first was a promotional copy and this is the format utilised for the CD re-issue. The commercially released vinyl version was re-arranged for commercial reasons into the form of 2 long suites. The promotional version also had a a longer version of Carnival (by about 30 seconds), something which was maintained for the CD version. Tracks 1 - 9 are digital transfers from the original master tapes. The bonus tracks (Tracks 10-15) were never released commercially but only available as promo DJ singles. For tracks 10-13, only one copy of each track was found and this not even a master tape, but rather a promotional DJ vinyl copy. Tracks 14-15 are from the original masters... From the opening number, Heroica, one can notice the string Canterbury influence that the band possessed. First of all there is that strong dominant violin sound that really gives the band a distinctive touch, though they do not betray their Middle Eastern roots as they tend to fellow a European or Western approach in structuring their music. Only in the second track, Help This Lonely World do we get to hear the lead vocals, and here the band really cement their resemblance to Caravan as the vocals are extremely soft and plaintive though the music still manages to convey a strange powerful feeling. Another band that one tends to think of when hearing Zingale, would obviously be Gentle Giant. This mainly occurs due to the strong violin presence, though the band do not tend to fall into the quirky nature that GG loved to include on their albums. In fact ere it not for the violin, another main influence of the band would be legendary band Yes, specially when one hears how the band structure their vocal harmonies. Tracks such as Love Song further enhance such a comparison, though one must also add that one element the band tend to lack is a virtuoso musician who could carry their music to a different level. Not all tracks are as straight forward as Help This Lonely World, as pieces such as Carnival bring out the jazzier side of the band as the beat definitely picks up allowing for various interchanges between violin, guitar and keyboards. The underlying beat seems to be driven by a funky bass as the other instruments indulge in playing their hearts out. Stampede, is another jazz influenced instrumental. which as its name implies moves along at a rhythmic pace. Experimentation is also a feature of the band as they make use of back tracking on One Minute Prayer, a track that sounds as if it is the first use of Jewish traditional music, though played backwards! At times the band also introduces a degree of melancholy, such as the acoustic guitar and violin piece, 7 Flowers Street. Furthermore it seems that the war scenario and the constant threat of terrorism within their home country was a dominant factor in their music writing. At times the titles of the tracks directly refer to this particular subject as happens on Lonely Violin Crying For Peace and Soon the War Is Over. Soon the War Is Over was originally the closing track to the only album the band released. Musically this track features a number of interesting features, though unfortunately the vocals are somewhat disappointing and strained as it gathers all the influences that the band had from Gentle Giant to Yes to Caravan. The remaining tracks did not feature on the original album that the band had released and also show the band in a different musical light. Furthermore vocals are sung in Hebrew rather than English, as happened on the album, a sign that the band had shifted their target audience (Nigel Camilleri, DPRP - Forgotten Sons: Zingale).

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More About Zingale HERE




Zingale:
*David (Hofesh) Bachar - Vocals and harmonica
*Yonatan (Johnny) Stern - Vocasl, 12-string
*Efrayim Barak - Elec. Guitar, Vocals
*Ehud (Udi) Tamir - Bass
*Ady Weiss - Fender Rhodes & more keyboards
*Tony Brower - Violin, Mandolin
*David Shanan - Drums
*David (Dudi) Rosenthal - Synthesizer, Effects & Percussion

Tracklisting:
01.Heroica - 4:19
02.Help This Lonely World - 3:51
03.Carnival - 5:59
04.Love Song - 6:11
05.7 Flowers Street - 2:54
06.One Minute Prayer - 0:47
07.Lonely Violin Crying For Peace - 3:12
08.Stampede - 5:35
09.Soon The War Is Over - 7:53

Bonus Tracks:
10.Why I Didn't Win The Lottery - 4:28
11.Everything Will Be OK - 3:20
12.Genesis - 4:37
13.Good To Be Together - 4:39
14.Party Inside - 2:55
15.Green Scooter On The Way To Asia - 6:18