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Oi Va Voi

From United Kingdom

Jewish music given a poppier makeover

They might have had quite an, ahem, fluid line-up over the years (including the departure of frontwomen KT Tunstall and Sophie Solomon), but Oi Va Voi's busy revolving door has, rather commendably, not prompted the dissolution of the band's artistic vision. The band's primary fascination is with Jewish music, most notably klezmer and Judeo-Spanish traditions, but choose to filter this through a keenly focused pop sensibility. Indeed, as they told the man from the Sunday Times, "people who know a lot about world music think we're quite mainstream, but to people who don't listen to world music, we might seem quite exotic". They're underplaying their achievements, here. They've actually managed to square one of the oldest circles in popular music - how to write songs that boast both serious subject matter and arrangements of easy appeal. The result is music that, especially when played live, calls to both the head and the feet.

(Biography written by Nige Tassell 2011)

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