Boshet 001 Nikmat Olalim - Battle Legacy CD

Oldschool, political, hardcore punk, songs about the political reality of Israeli life. Recorded in the spring of 2003 at the Mapakh by Moshe Grushka. Released in October 2003 and contains 11 songs, six in Hebrew and five in English. Hand silk-screened gatefold cardboard cover, with two versions: English and Hebrew. 450 factory pressed CD-Rs printed in two editions: 200 in October 2003 and 250 in June. (Hebrew and English, with translation) (5 Euros/$6/25 shekels) Nikmat Olalim's website

Track list: 1. Your Culture Makes Me Sick 2. Selective Blindness 3. Financial Target 4. Milk Children 5. Press Conference 6. Ethnic Cleansing 7. Ghetto Syndrome 8. Conform or Die 9. Talking Activist 10. Video Games Addict 11. Ballad for a Magav Cop

Reviews:

Slug and Lettuce #79, Spring 2004
Anti-Zionist old school punk from Israel. Guitar leads that bring East Bay Ray to mind, and riffs that conjure up images of some long lost TOXIC RESONS demo. Musically this is pretty solid and rocking (a little jerky and non cohesive at times, but who wants perfection anyway?) but the content is exemplary. It's rare for the average North American to read about the "situation" in Israel from the perspective of an Israeli. The disc comes with information about NIKMAT OLALIM (the Jewish terrorist group from which the band took its name), the "acceptable" actions of the Israeli military, and about the distortion of Israeli political/military activities in the western press, as well as lengthy explanations to the lyrics, which are translated from Hebrew to English. Aside from the fact that this rocks, it's very worth your time.

Reason to Believe August 2004
Debut CD from this Israeli band playing old school political hardcore punk. Lyrically they remind me of DIR YASSIN with songs about the current situation in Israel and the Jewish terrorism mixed with more personal analysis of Israeli society sang in English and Hebrew and including English translation in a nicely designed plastic free CD.

Screaming Bloody Mess online zine
Nikmat Olalim "Toddler's Revenge" is the name of an extremist Jewish organization that set a pipe bomb in a primary school in Zur Baher, a village in East Jerusalem. The terrorist attack injured 10 schoolchildren and a teacher. Nikmat Olalim is also an Israeli anti Zionist punk band who rail against the injustices of the Palestinian occupation. They play old school, political, hardcore punk, songs about the political reality of Israeli life. Songs such as Your Culture Makes Me Sick, Selective Blindness and Ethnic Cleansing are sung in both Hebrew and English. You know while watching the television news and you see acts of state terrorism committed by the Israeli army against the Palestinian people and you feel sick and kind of helpless? Then track this cd down from the address above and help support a band that are challenging the Israeli state within Israel-not always an easy thing to do.

International Punk/Hardcore online zine
As far as I know, this new Israeli band features ex-members of DIR YASSIN. The packaging is cool for a demo, the sound is ok, and they write good, really radical & interesting political lyrics about the situation in their country. Unfortunately, I found the music to be pretty basic, and I didn’t like the vocals at all. The band is interesting and I’m sure they have the capacity to write great songs, but they have to rehearse a bit more and focus on music rather than on politics (who would have thought I would have said this one day!).

Vendetta online zine
Once the novelty value of ‘hardcore...FROM ISRAEL!’ wears off, you’re plunged knee-deep into a swamp of simple and catchy Black Flag riffs and throat-rending Ian McKay vocals. This is a style of brutal, earthy hardcore punk that evolved against the backdrop of Reagan’s America. Israel today is like no-where else in the entire world but the two settings like many others, are joined through music that means something. Music you play until your fingers bleed. Music you play when you can’t afford to. Music that makes all of us proud to be punk.

It’s not the most accomplished or technical sound in the world, but ‘Battle Legacy’ comes package with a rich mythology and power of its own. The first two tracks are in Hebrew, but the time the English starts it won’t even register because by that point you’ve stopped listening to the words and started listening to the rage.

The insert leads you through each track from the criticisms of the media in ‘Your Culture Makes Me Sick’, attacks on the half-assed apolitical Israeli scene-kids in ‘Selective Blindness’ (“And I don’t care whether skateboarding is a crime or not, I’m sick of empty slogans that have no meaning for me, We don’t need to search for injustice, it’s right here in our face.”) through to criticisms of the entire political situation in their country in ‘Ethnic Cleansing’ and ‘Ghetto Syndrome.’ My favourite ‘Ballad for a Magav Cop’ sung in Hebrew is a fantastically paced mock ballad to the militant and notoriously trigger-happy boarder police that sits comfortably alongside Dead Kennedys ‘Police Truck’.

The art that swims across the cover and through the pages of the insert is reminiscent of Vince Ransid’s art for MDC’s early flyers and LPs, grotesque dystopian images rendered in thick black ink by Yaniv Geller. A name I’ll be disappointed if I don’t see again adorning the cover of an album. It’s like being taken back to an era before my time; a second chance to gaze into Hardcore’s ugly bleeding heart.

Nikmat Olalim gave me a little jolt; I’m used to imagining the entire Jewish population of Israel as pseudo-fascist boot-boys and who can blame me? All we see on the news are Israeli tanks cutting a swath through Palestinian tenements and zealous young Americans who leave their cosy little homes in suburban San Jose to enlist in the Israeli Defence Force. ‘Battle Legacy’ shared with me many things, but chief among them was a reminder that the Jewish people are not a faceless statistic, they no more support the hostile and oppressive actions of their government and the knee-jerk terrorism of their countrymen then we do our own.