Axehole

Canadian Jewish News has the scoop on chassidic Jews in Melbourne, Australia, that are proving that it is possible to be a dedicated student of Kabbalah and still create cutting edge electronic music.

The Underground Kabbalah Project, a band that records on the Australian-based Cookitup Records label, is made up of four “core” members – Noiyam Ha Shirmasher, DJ Tzsooris, MC Meshuganah, and MC Maccabi – all of whom are in their 20s and use an alias to hide their identities from the rest of the chassidic community who they fear would disapprove of the music they create.

Shirmasher, who spent six months in Canada in 2004 studying at different yeshivot in Montreal and Toronto, produces and writes the music, but he has great difficulty describing it.

“It’s kind of electro-pop with big splashes of breaks, hip-hop, drum n’ bass, mixed with psycho horn playing and chassidic melodies,” he said. “Sometimes though, I’ll get some horn players or different cantors to do stuff.”