Danny Ben-Israel "The Kathmandu Sessions" 1968 Israeli Psych.
These recording (sung in English) were supposed to be released in the early seventies in an American label, but at the time of the supposed release the label went bankrupt. A request, made by Merry Records to Ben-Israel about a year ago, led to the tracking and release of these recordings. A year after the famous Woodstock Festival, the Europeans, across the Atlantic, had their own event - the Isle of Wight Festival. The time was August, 1970, and in front of Jethro Tull, The Who, Leonard Cohen, The Doors and Miles Davis, sat thousands of Flower Children. Among those young people was one, who sitting with a flock of brown curls and a joint, didn't look very different from any of the others. It's just that he was different. Very much so. Aside from the fact that he was one of the only Israelis in the festival, for Danny Ben-Israel this was the end of a process that began with a successful career in an IDF band (Israeli Defense Force), blossomed into a position in Israeli culture as a local pop idol and ended with a shut door from the Israeli establishment.In 1968, Ben-Israel returned to Israel from an eye-opening European trip where he discovered the world of communes, hippies and sex and decided to apply what he picked up in Europe to his music. Ben-Israel recorded 'Bullshit 3 ¼', the first Psychedelic protest album in Hebrew. At the same sessions he recorded six English tracks now known as 'The Lost Kathmandu Sessions'.
The following information was copied from 'The Freak Emporium':
Great unreleased material by the '60's Israeli drop-out who's music was banned in Israel. These recordings fromTel Aviv and Austria finally see the light of day and six of the tracks that make up this CD (recorded at the same time as Bullshit 3 1/4 1968) are completely over the top stoned, acid fried tunes typically of their time (late 60's). The final track was recorded in 1970. All the songs are a rare combination that brings together Tim Buckley's melancholic operatics, Donovans wistful singing and the lunatic vocal escapades of Mick Farren. Essential stuff counter cultural stuff. Woth buying for the title of the last track 'The Hippies Of Today Are The Assholes of Tomorrow'
