White Town

August, 1999. My first (very hot!) month in Jerusalem. It's nice having cheap unlimited internet by night, but I'm listening to music on cassettes and CD's mostly. So one day my sister took me out for some music shopping. Our first stop was Tower Records on King George street - a huuuuge store with massive alternative and electronic sections... and not that cheap... so after looking and salivating on all the Warp and Ninja Tune CD's, we went to Shamai street to check out Picadilly Records. Only years later I realized that I saw the legendary store in its last days. This was the final sale and there were stocks upon stocks of CD's everywhere for ridiculous prices! We bought a few items, including the album that my sister bought because of the hit song. To our surprise, the album was very different from that one hit and very soon I was already listening to the album and skipping the hit song each time - it seemed so boring and even "usual", compared to the other songs. One of these songs became my favorite for many years - an ideal heartbreak tune for a romantic 16-year-old indie kid.

GAIA LIVE MIXES. BIG CHILL - PART 10

The Irresistible Force remix flowed into some hypnotizing echoing female vocal chant, which faded into sad chords... a pause... and the soft male voice entered: "Can it be? Do you hear? A new freedom song is ringing...", melting all the feelings gathered throughout this intense 90-minute journey into a melancholic but very hopeful release. Every word was resonating in my head, opening the gates for the coming morning...
A year later, on Sartaba, I heard this first verse again, while staring at the first rays of the rising sun:

Something simple is the key
Only love will set us free...

The long last word and chords dissolved in a long delay, never entering the beat. This is where the tape ended.

GAIA LIVE MIXES. BIG CHILL - PART 9

The mix was traveling further into some jazz-funk tune which dissolved into long bubbling electronic chords and the voice calling: "...there's a message for us... today...". The ambient/downtempo tune was like a catharsis of the journey that this mix was intensely flowing through all of the previous 80 minutes.

I remember, when one year later I went with my class to Sartaba, I was listening to this mix all the way up to the mountain and reached this tune when we were nearly at the top. In the first light of the morning, in the middle of the desert, surrounded by nothing but stones... it touched something very deep inside me... and still does each time I hear it.