The Devil’s Anvil – Shisheler (Columbia)
Download Hard Rock From The Middle East
This is some old school awesomeness right here. Found this mono gem in the new bin at my favorite local record store in all its hard psych glory. Songs in Greek, Turkish, and Arabic (with an English “Miserlou” cover thrown in to tip it over the edge), blazing hot guitars with that sweet Middle Eastern twang, killer ’60s acid rock jams and noodley traditional charmers, totally weird, way ahead of its time. 100% great, especially the B-side opener “Shiseler” which is just too fucking cool.
And if you’ve never heard of them, this is probably why (taken from Wikipedia): “Unfortunately for The Devil’s Anvil, their album was released during escalating tensions between Israel and neighboring Arab countries and the Six Day War, or the Arab-Israeli War, in 1967. Subsequently, radio stations would not touch the album because of its controversial sound.”
Have had this one for years…a real classic. Has had only one re-issue that I know of…a split CD with something else.
More people need to know of it.
Brilliant, thanks for finding and subsequently posting this. Just made my night.
I’ve never heard of them before, but good heavens! They’re amazing! If I ever heard of them before, I would’ve been an avid fan!
I love this album. Their version of Misirlou is a firm favourite down my local pub, thanks to me.
So, Kareem Issaq (the guy wearing traditional clothing in the picture) was my Arabic professor at UNLV. He would bring in his `oud (the instrument he’s holding in the picture) and teach us songs in Levantine Arabic, then we would go through line by line to figure out what they meant. Best way to learn a language, in my opinion!
The answer to a secular prayer. Was wondering whether the stereo mixes could be bettered, and it turns out they could. THANKS!