A Reggae Birthright

Fusing cultures has shaped the music of many a band, but few so dramatically as Tel Aviv’s Zvuloon Dub System. In 1984, 22 years before the band first formed, Israel airlifted thousands of Ethiopian Jews, facing persecution and famine, out of Sudan in an evacuation called Operation Moses. Gili Yalo’s family was among those to land in Israel; he was just four years old. Fast-forward to 2006, and Israeli percussionist Asaf Smilan has his own roots-reggae crew. “Israel doesn’t have too many great reggae singers,” he says. “It’s not Jamaica here.” After a friend introduced Smilan and Yalo, though, a new musical window opened. “We’re musicians who are always exploring. So when Gili came and began to sing in Amharic, well, everything changed.” Traditional reggae, Middle Eastern rhythms and funky Ethiopian roots converge in the 9-man Zvuloon Dub System, who released Anbessa Dub this year. Packed with bright horns, hypnotic grooves and Yalo’s Amharic incantations, Anbessa Dub is as much a party album as it is an album for deep thoughts. Fresh off their first U.S. tour, and a slot at the Reggae Sumfest in Jamaica this summer, Zvuloon took their global grooves to an international stage. “I believe in what we are doing, and it’s just the beginning of something amazing for us,” says Smilan. “This is the new Israeli culture.”