Name Erez Einsen | Role Musical composer | |
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Music groups Infected Mushroom (Since 1996), Shiva Shidapu Albums Army of Mushrooms, Converting Vegetarians, Vicious Delicious, Legend of the Black Shawarma, IM the Supervisor Similar People Amit Duvdevani, Yahel Sherman, Michele Adamson, Zedd, Lady Gaga | ||
Erez Eisen Erez Eisen (ארז אייזן) is a music composer performing for the group known as Infected Mushroom famous for their composition in psytrance genre. Infected Mushroom is one of the best-selling groups in Israeli music history, in terms of both domestic and international sales.
Contents
- Early life
- Shiva Shidapu
- 19962004 First four studio albums
- 20042007 IM the Supervisor and increasing popularity
- 20072012 Vicious Delicious and Legend of the Black Shawarma
- 20122015 Army of Mushrooms and Friends on Mushrooms
- References
They employ a variety of musical sources, including acoustic guitars and complex synthesized basses, and their compositions often contain changes of drum beat and tempo. Infected Mushroom's live shows feature vocals and analogue instruments in performances that are set against a multimedia backdrop. Erez began classical training at a young age, learning to play the organ at age four and studied classical piano at the Haifa Conservatory from the age of eight. Eisen became involved with computerized music at age 11, beginning with Impulse Tracker and later moving to more advanced musical composition software.
Early life
Erez Eisen was born on 8 September 1980 in Kiryat Yam (Hebrew: קִרְיַת יָם, lit. Sea Town), Israel. He had early musical training, learning to play the organ at age 4 and studying piano in the Haifa Conservatory from the age of 8. At age 11 he started toying with computerized music, first using Impulse Tracker and later moving to more advanced musical composition software. By the age of 18, Erez had collaborated with DJ Jörg and other notable psy-trance artists,and had released three albums and a multitude of tracks under different psy-trance acts (including Shidapu and Shiva Shidapu). In 1998, Eisen and Amit Duvdevani began playing together. At first they released a few tracks as Shidapu & Duvdev. These tracks were 'happier' and of the simpler side of trance. Later on, they formed the duo Infected Mushroom and started working on their first album.
Shiva Shidapu
Shiva Shidapu was a band combining Erez Eizen (Israel) and Jörg Kessler aka DJ Jörg (Germany), a goa trance project. The tools, Shiva Shidapu used Impulse Tracker to create their music. The tune "Power of Celtic" from their album "Shiva Space Technology" can be downloaded in Impulse Tracker format at ModLand.
1996–2004: First four studio albums
Eisen and Duvdevani first began to play together in 1996. A few of their early efforts were released under the name Shidapu & Duvdev. The duo then renamed themselves Infected Mushroom, and began work on their first album, 1999's The Gathering. This album featured a dark, rhythmic sonic atmosphere exemplified by its popular track, "Psycho". It was one of the first albums to bring Israeli psytrance to mainstream audiences, and contributed to the genre's worldwide popularity.
Their 2000 album, Classical Mushroom, contained "Bust A Move", one of their most lauded productions. The album is commonly referred to as one of the groups best efforts, in which they continued their sonic evolution, and it remains one of the best-known albums in the genre.
The duo's 2001 B.P. Empire is notable for the musical epic "Dancing With Kadafi", which segues numerous styles of music, most notably through middle-eastern style melodies and a classical break which showcases Erez and Amit's piano skills.
Converting Vegetarians (2003), was a two-disc set. The 'Trance Side' disc contained trance-like dancefloor material comparable to their earlier work, while the disc entitled 'The Other Side' contained genre-bending experimental music. 'The Other Side' included Duvdev's vocal debut on the title track, the down-tempo "Elation Station", and the electro-pop tracks "Blink" and "Illuminaughty".
2004–2007: IM the Supervisor and increasing popularity
The 2004 release of IM The Supervisor, often incorrectly referred to as "I'm The Supervisor", continued to mix psytrance with other musical genres and became Infected Mushroom's best-selling album to date. It was psychedelic in a way that dance music rarely had been prior to its release. Certain parts of IM The Supervisor, most notably the gamelan-like noises, cut-up samples, and the old-school sequencer throb of "Bombat," were lauded as innovative at the time.
Guitarists Thomas Cunningham and Erez Netz joined the group in 2004, the same year as the band relocated from their Haifa base to a studio in Los Angeles, California. Brazilian percussionist Rogério Jardim was recruited later on, in 2007.
Infected Mushroom rose to #9 in the influential DJmag Top 100 DJs poll and were the highest placed psytrance DJs in the category's 2007 debut appearance, a reflection of the role the group had played in the genre's increased worldwide popularity.
2007–2012: Vicious Delicious and Legend of the Black Shawarma
Vicious Delicious, considered by some as their most diverse musical effort up until that point, was released in 2007. The album includes "Becoming Insane"—a Spanish-guitar-led track containing Spanish lyrics—a collaboration with Gil, of Kinky, and the hip hop-influenced "Artillery". The overall album features more guest vocalists than previous albums, as well as live guitars and drums.
Legend of the Black Shawarma was released in 2009. It includes a remix of The Doors song "Riders on the Storm", and continues the stylistic variety and use of guest vocalists. The album title refers to an Australian who wanted to go to sea in a shark-proof cage and was told that he would seem like "black shawarma", a West Asian delicacy, to the sharks. The success of Legend of the Black Shawarma led to a three-year tour.
2012–2015: Army of Mushrooms and Friends on Mushrooms
The band's album, Army of Mushrooms, was released on May 8, 2012 on the Dim Mak Records label. It features tracks influenced by the psychedelic trance, dubstep, house and drum and bass genres, such as the up-tempo, breakbeat track "The Rat". The album includes a cover of "The Pretender" by the Foo Fighters, the progressive heavy-hitter "Drum n' Bassa" and "Nation of Wusses"—released as a single on April 3, 2012—and "U R So Fucked", released as a single/video on February 14, 2012.