Rotem Sails on the “Indian Ocean” in New Video (premiere)

Rotem Sivan has been called a “bonafide guitar god with rugged Israeli sex appeal and skills that make us swoon”. But, at the end of the day, god or godlike status aside, the answer as to whether he can write songs or not rests firmly in the category of “yes”, as evidenced by “Indian Ocean”, a track from the forthcoming LP titled My Favorite Monster, due August 31.

The songs trippy and tripped-out rhythms are funky, soulful and a bit mysterious, recalling contemporary experimental electronic music as well as the deft rhythm work of Jimi Hendrix and Steve Vai’s alien leaps and bounds along melody lines with flecks of spiritually glazed jazz lines added in.

Sivan says of the tune, “I went to India for three months last year, during which I wrote this song. I was longing for a faraway love at the time, and I was very lonely, so one of the things to keep me company, and which reminded me of the person I was missing, was watching anime. I wanted to make the video for this song out of anime clips, so I chopped and reorganized footage from a few episodes of Keijo.” He adds that during that time something else remarkable happened: “I met a monster. Scary looking, weird voice, had a funny walk, your typical monster. It came to me and we co-wrote the album. It’s my favorite monster. The monster approved of the video.”