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Diwon (ne Erez Safar) is a musical mystic, multi-genre producer who travels the globe performing, producing and researching sounds. His styles range from Yemenite music blended with electro hip hop beats to cinematic psychadelia. Throughout Diwon's albums, remixes, singles, and mixtapes, one can hear the influence of his family that migrated from Yemen to Ethiopia finally settling in Israel. It has been rumored that Diwon reaches a state of synesthesia throughout the writing and recording processes.
As a prolific producer, Diwon releases a wide range of albums a year. This past year, he released "The Beat Guide to Yiddish," the "Rarities & Remixes" series, the "I Heart Mixtape," and "Shir Ha Shirim" (The Song of Songs) - an hour long meditation mixing emotive Moroccan singing with hypnotic hip hop, rock, and mizrahi sounds. Meanwhile, he is finishing up his "Dreams in Static" album, a cinematic record with guitarist Dugans, as well as working on a revolutionary hip hop record, "This is Unity" with Y-Love.
Diwon has performed with Lou Reed, Anthony Coleman, Matisyahu, DJ Spooky, and Idan Raichel, along with countless others. URB MAGAZINE listed Diwon amongst their NEXT 1000, London Radio's 104.4 FM called him, "one of New York's hottest Jewish musicians;" the Jerusalem Post dubbed him, "Jewish music's multimedia mogul;" Forward listed him as one of the Top 50 "most influential Jews of 2007;" and The Village Voice stated that his work "as producer and DJ is among the most adventurous and banging on the new Jewish music scene." Diwon's live sets include a diverse mix of singers and live musicians, creating a lively blend of world music, hip hop, and jazz. His music, style, and presence get famous US clubs to resemble the craziest festivals abroad.
Erez Safar is the founder and director of Shemspeed (largest, most diverse Semetic music site), Modular Moods (an independent record label), Hip Hop Sulha, and The Sephardic Music Festival.
"Diwon is something else …in a profound kind of way. The New Yorker gets crafty when it comes to beats by extracting world music—mainly traditional Yemenite music-- and fusing it with electro hip hop; creating a titillating sound that’s juicy and for the ears." - URB Magazine
Diwon was featured and interviewed on BBC World TV to a viewership of 77 million people, on his UK Tour. To see photos click here
Selected PRESS:
* Jpost feature (read)
* Urb.com (read)
* Jewish Week feature (read)
* Time Out (read)
* Jewcy feature (read)
* Jerusalem Billboard cover story (read)
* Forward Top 50 (read)
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Washington City Paper review of Diwon's Shemspeed launch (read)
* JTA interview with Diwon about "The Beat Guide" (click here to read)
Diwon website
Erez Safar website
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"Rarities & Remixes"
* This record give the listener a taste of Diwon's beats as well as his world famous remixes which bring hip hop and bmore rhythms to Yemenite & Sephardic sounds.
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"Dreams in Static"
* The duo of Diwon and Dugans have tapped into the cinematic space of sonic dreams. The songs sound like soundtracks to films yet unmade or perhaps lost and forgotten. The walls of sound that flow throughout the "dreams of static" sessions encompass nu-beat, indie, world & psychadelia.
(COMING THIS FALL) |
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"Shir HaShirim"
* The music mixes the emotive Moroccan singing of Benyamin Brody in a "call out" to the most high, through the writings and poetry of King Solomon, with Diwon's and Dugans' signature walls of sound that bring hip hop, rock, and mizrachi influences to this middle eastern meditative record.
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"I Heart Mixtape"
* A mix devoted to what pop music is made of, LOVE. Diwon mixes various languages and genres as well as some of his own sounds into the music of which love is made.
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"The Beat Guide to Yiddish"
* The Beat Guide mixes some of Diwon's own music into forgotten sounds from Eastern Europe. Hear Yiddish in a way you would have never thought possible.
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"The Y-Love Mixtape"
* The classic CD that introduced Y-Love to the world. The MC drop his lyrical skills over a genre smashing blended classic mixed by dj handler (Diwon).
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"Sephardic Music Fest Mixtape"
* The SMF mixtape is much like the festival. It gives the listener a great taste of all sorts of music, but with an emphasis on beats. All music mixed by the festivals founder and producer, dj handler. (Diwon).
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"Psychadeliciwon"
* A world music enthusiasts dream, Diwon mixes his own psych compositions with rare tracks from Turkey, Brazil, Israel & Japan. For fans of the fuzz and lo fi.
(COMING THIS SUMMER)
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"Laissez-Jouer"
* A collection of dj handler (Diwon's) early mixtapes which blend, afrobeat, bhangra, hip hop, house, soul & bmore. This disc marks the period where distinct genres blurred through thee eyes of the dj, a melting pot of culture clash. |
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"This is Babylon"
* This revolutionary hip hop debut by Y-Love, the militant mystic, boasts stand-out electric dance tracks like "Bring It On Down" and politically supercharged anthems such as "6000," with a Parliment/Outkast-esque production vibe. (executive producer) |
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"Count It" (Sefira)
* An all vocal hip-hop record with over seven tracks to correspond to the seven weeks of the Sefira. The album is amazingly musical and innovative, hard to believe that Yuri Lane's mouth wasn't being produced by Timbaland. (produceed by Diwon) |
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"Shemspeed Alt Schule"
* Punk klezmer jazz influenced heavily by John Zorn and underground experimental group, Gutbucket. This debut record captures a live energy rarely packed into a studio recording.
(drummer/producer) |
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"InSatiable Jonze"
* Diwon's first exploration into the world of abstract music. InSatiable Jonze was an instrumental trio that mixed jazz and progressive rock with an occasional spoken word piece.
(guitarist/producer) |
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"Conveniently Unconventional"
* The remaining document from Diwon's week long 24 hour live exhibit at Times Square's Chashama Gallery. The exhibit used abstracted and blended audio and visual art blurring the lines of the source material. |
| buy now @ the modular store |
 DIWON - URB NEXT 1000!!!
Check it out and VOTE!!
http://www.urb.com/next1000
"Diwon is something else …in a profound kind of way. The New Yorker gets crafty when it comes to beats by extracting world music—mainly traditional Yemenite music-- and fusing it with electro hip hop; creating a titillating sound that’s juicy and for the ears. His musical influence developed from his migration from Yemen to Ethiopia to Israel. Among his myriad of aliases, he is better known as Erez Safar a producer/drummer/DJ/as necessary singer, who champions himself on representing Jewish culture to the fullest. When he’s not on the 1’s and 2’s, he’s busy running Shemspeed (music website) and Modular Moods (independent record label) and a couple of music festivals. Check out Idan Raichel vs. Kid Sister from his remix album That Yemenite Kid. Yeah, it’s fire." - Nicole Dawley, URB Magazine.
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