Boshet 005 Nikmat Olalim - Self Devouring Land 7"

The latest release from this controversal political hardcore punk band. Songs about ecology, the "security" fence, work and life in the scene. Recorded, mixed and mastered in the spring of 2004 at the Mapakh by Moshe Grushka. Released September 2004, for Nikmat Olalim's European tour. 1000 pressed. Was preceded by a limited CD-R version that was sold only in Israel before the tour. (Hebrew and English, with translation) (3 Euros/$4/15 shekels)

Track list: Side A: 1. The Complete Destruction of Israel 2. Controlled Explosion 3. Hollow Side B: 4. One in a Million 5. No Way Out 6. Idiotology

Reviews:

Hardcore Times, online zine
This is the first Israeli release we've ever gotten here and when the package came through the door and I saw the post mark I must admit my first thought was, am I going to be able to review this given my strong pro-Palestine feelings....

Well Nikmat Olalim are an Israeli hardcore punk band, in fact a controversal band..... they have a pro-Palestinian theme, songs dealing with the "security" fence, song titles like "The Complete Destruction of Israel", "Controlled Explosion", label themselves as anti-zionist punk.

As for their music! they play thrashy DIY hardcore punk, with some crust elements thrown in. This isn't your average signed-to-a-label-with-tons-of-cash-punk-band, this is DIY all the way. Too many hardcore/punk bands these days don't actually have a point to make, but Nikmat Olalim do, and do it well! Check out the Boshet distro and pick this up.

Great artwork and loads of sleeve notes to read.

Montag Press, online zine
I've had this sat next to my laptop for ages, an unforgivably long time and that's got nothing to do with the fact that it's on 7" vinyl - I've got a turn-table because some music you just HAVE TO listen to on the crackling black stuff, 80s thrash and hardcore in particular because under the needle is the best place for their questionable recording quality and shitty production values.

Instead my reason was that I don't know if I can give Nikmat Olalim a fair review, judge them by the same standards I would any other band simply because they're from Israel and their fiercely critical stance goes shatters this perception I have as a Guardian reader of Israelis being either brainwashed IDF soldiers blindly following orders or twitchy settlers living in some distorted spaghetti western fantasy world. My country invaded Iraq and I questioned it, so the fact that I find seeing some Israeli band or other do the same of their government to be cause for a knee-jerk round of furious applause is frankly patronising of me.

I don't know if I can ever escape this bias, I don't know if I can ever get past the novelty value of punk from Israel that isn't the whiny irrelevant shitfest of Useless ID so I guess I might as well do it anyway and if you've made it through this so far then you've got a damn good idea of where everything you read from this point forth is coming from.

Nikmat Olalim take their name from one of many elements of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict that rarely makes the headlines; an extremist Jewish organisation that bombed a school in the Palestinian-dominated East Jerusalem. The band attempt to link extremist Jewish terrorism to the secular 'legal' terrorism of the government and military and from that point alone you should have picked up exactly what it is Nikmat Olalim are about.

With the content out of the way, the area where I'm mostly likely to say something stupid, we're down to the music itself which is pretty much faithful 80s style east-coast hardcore with a touch of Minor Threat and an equal helping of Faith, it's not necessarily the most remarkable thing you've ever heard but it's genuine and it's passionate and that counts for something. The lyrics are in English which will doubtless come as a relief so you don't have to nod sagaciously and pretend to be enjoying it just because someone's told you to.

The biggest treat is the packaging; maybe I'm really immature but I got a small kick out of the hole in the centre of the record being cunningly doctored to resemble a bullet hole in Ariel Sharon's bloated forehead. Or if your mental age can be counted on more then three hands there are two essays one from a teacher at Tel Aviv University which raises it a few clicks above the usual some-dude-somewhere-telling-you-something-sucks that you get in political punk.

It's a bit unlikely that you're ever going to stumble across a Nikmat Olalim release in your friendly neighbourhood music store but there's a split with Oi Polloi out on some German label sometime soon and a few tours of Europe being batted about so you never know. Might happen.