http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukrntahOrxM

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/archives/2009/09/yes_in_my_backy_18.php

We're excited to announce our first European tour which will take place in France in October.  We have been working with Jerkov Musiques based in Toulouse and are excited to bring our music overseas.  The dates are posted here, and check back for more details over the coming weeks.

http://italia.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=3610

TRANSLATION (enjoy : )

Eye, these scratch!
Evidently the good John Zorn has decided to exactly take the name that has assigned to the fortunate series “Radical Jewish Cultures”. After Koby Isrealite, Jamie Saft, Jon Madof & Rashanim, Eyal Maoz and others, arrive the time for the quartet guided from the chitarrista Yoshie Fruchter. With this Pitom we find right in the middle a dangerous crossing between the energy of the King Crimson of half years seventy, the Mahavishnu Orchestra of John McLaughlin of the debuts and sure excursions “to rockettare” of Bill Laswell (than to case it has not cured in own study of recording these optimal egg whites, published from the Tzadik di Zorn). Without to forget the lessons more recent than Sonic Youth and Masada.

They violino and it Brown viola of Jeremy seems to offer itself as lamb sacrifices them, with zigzaganti melodie that attract to us with their honey scent in the lair of the lupo. When we lower the guard, because we are reasonably sure that not there is null to fear, arrive the broadsides acide of the guitar of Yoshie Fruchter and music seems to explode in the air as artifice fires colorful and unforeseeable fines. The scent is that one of washes incandescent, with long taps always very supported from the locked ritmica of the optimal drummer Kevin Zubek and the bassista funambolico Shanir Blumenkranz. To this point also Jeremy Brown it removes the mask and it is dived in the abysses to flank of the companions, menando cleaving that they bring back us to the mythical memory the High Tide di Simon House and Tony Hill.

From a melodico and harmonic point of view the music that we listen seems to be perfectly descent in the Jewish tradition, but the execution is moved frequently and with decision towards a metropolitan aggressiveness that tells the quarters to us of Brooklyn more much than not the sinagoghe mysterious. In the sections more controlled humor is melancholic, hurting reflexive and. But then enough a moment of distraction in order to find itself projected to the center of the distance of the rockets surface-to-surface, in the environs of the heated stock-pots of the tank, encircled from projects tracing them that they explode in the air.

The thirteen pieces are rigorously orchestrate them and the voices that we listen are alone those which emerge from the guitar electrical worker, from violino, from viola, from the low electrical worker and the battery. But they are enough and they are left over in order to express all the one which is hidden in the heart of these self-confident young manen who do not stop themselves in front of nothing. And because they would have?

http://www.jazztimes.com/reviews/cd_reviews/detail.cfm?article_id=19808


"Guitarist-composer Yoshie Fruchter brings a punk sensibility to klezmer music on this audacious debut, which features music he’s dubbed “punkassjewjazz.” With violinist Jeremy Brown, drummer Kevin Zubek and Shanir Blumenkrantz on electric fuzz bass, Fruchter’s Pitom quartet affects a deranged-surf-band aesthetic on “Skin and Bones” and “Shikora,” while the more hard-edged, atonal vibe of “Go Go Golem” and “Minim” suggests Sonic Youth and Slayer jamming at a Purim party. The intense unisons on “The Robe of Priestly Proportions” recall Frank Zappa’s ensemble discipline and wah-inflected six-string abandon. Elsewhere, the guitarist incorporates touches of Sonny Sharrock’s shards-of-splintered-glass approach."

-Bill Milkowski

http://www.squidsear.com/cgi-bin/news/newsView.cgi?newsID=833

One of the strongest threads through John Zorn's career, as a musician and label head, is a love for rock guitar. From Bill Frisell (before he moved to the West Coast, leaving his distortion pedal behind), Marc Ribot and Buckethead to his more recent championing of Jon Madof, Zorn has had a public love affair with hard guitar lines.

The newest name on his list is Yoshie Fruchter, a Washington, DC, native now living in Brooklyn, who’s four-piece Pitom seems tailor-made for Tzadik's Radical Jewish Culture series. Searing guitar lines shoot along the edge of surf and metal in a way more than a little similar to Ribot's playing, especially (given Fruchter's themes) in Zorn's Electric Masada. But Fruchter's band is more balls-out rocking than the Masada complexities, and Shanir Blumenkranz's fuzz bass at times pushes them over the top. Kevin Zubek's solid drumming is a constant force here, and the band is nicely rounded out by Jeremy Brown's violin and viola, often mirroring the taut guitar lines. There's nothing particularly new to be heard on the record, but for those who can't get enough of the Zorn brand of Radical Jewish Culture, here's some more.

-Kurt Gottschalk, squidsear.com

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123005281362230443.html

...On "Pitom" (Tzadik), guitarist Yoshie Fruchter mixes grunge, jazz, Zappa, noise-rock and a dollop of surf music with Jewish modes and scales to create a loud, raucous album full of noise and virtuosity. The rhythm section can explode with heavy-metal thunder, and when Jeremy Brown enters on viola or violin, you'll hear echoes of the Mahavishnu Orchestra. A dazzling debut...

http://www.juf.org/news/chanukah.aspx?id=39344


8 nights, 8 lights, 8 musical delights

By Paul Wieder

Pitom: Pitom
Say your ensemble consists of a violin, a bass, and some drums. Now you add a guitar. An acoustic, right? Not if you’re Yoshie Fruchter. Now, in the right hands, say Billy Bragg’s or Mark Knopfler’s, an electric guitar can be a surprisingly tender instrument. And Fruchter plays in that mode on about half the tracks here. On the others, he asks the question, what if a heavy metal guitarist played improvisational jazz based on Jewish tropes? Answer: You’d get tracks like “Go Go Golem” and “Freigel Rock.” (The “pitom” is the tiny, fragile knob at the tip of the etrog). For fans of Nirvana, the Ramones, Megadeth, and other music that “goes to 11.”

http://blogindm.blogspot.com/2008/11/off-review-stack-pitom-josh-nelson.html

OFF THE REVIEW STACK

Yoshie Fruchter's Pitom

This disc is composer/guitarist Yoshie Fruchter's debut recording on the Tzadik record label.

This disc sounds as though members of The Ramones, Sonic Youth, and one lone violinist were the only ones to turn up for a klezmer jam session with Elvin Jones. And turn up they do! Fun for those who appreciate guitar skronk and klez-influenced riffage. Like me!

The rhythm section here is the one from Danny Zamir's former group Satlah; Shanir Ezra Blumenkrantz on electric bass and Kevin Zubek on drums. Violinist Jeremy Brown joins Fruchter to round out the band and the lead guitar and violin lay down some nice tight unison lines and intriguing improv over strong grooves, while the bass 'n drums express themselves in the background, although they too step forward at times, especially when the bass doubles the guitar & violin.

Fave tracks include "The Robe of Priestly Proportions" Parts I and II, Shikora, and Davita. "Freigel Rock" sounds like a nicely demented take on the Adam's Family Theme.

This album goes along nicely with Aaron Alexander's Midrash Mish Mosh. Double bill, anyone?