Levontin7 can give a feeling of underground to any performer. First of all, it is under the ground – the ground floor occupied by the bar and the concert lounge being in the basement. It has a low ceiling painted black, dark lighting, a small stage and a pretty good sound. The place isn’t big, not more than 150 people would fit in there, if you ask me, though usually I see much less audience there. A few shows are often held each evening. That, on one hand, makes shows start almost on time, but on the other can make them shorter then expected. It’s surely a successful enterprise for the club, perhaps not so good for the musicians and the audience. Anyhow, Levontin became the usual place for any kind of the so called indie or underground acts – local or from abroad.

On Wednesday, August 25 it hosted our own Dukatalon and Stash.

Stash went on first to give a pretty good performance, about 40 minutes long. In my opinion – the time limitation did them good. The previous show I’ve seen (A recent gig with Underdog in Sublime) was much longer, and got less and less interesting as it went on – though the crappy sound contributed a lot to that feeling. This time, with better sound and no overfeed of material the band made a much better impression. Stash plays stoner rock of the good old classic kind; however the feeling is that the music developments of the nineties were a strong influence. The songs are fun to listen to, even though they tend to remind each other due to the style and the way they are sung. Stash is a five piece band; yet the sound isn’t dense – rather floating and pleasant. The singer has a nice enough voice; however he doesn’t deliver the intensive load of energy I would expect in this style of music.

All in all it’s very suitable music for a nostalgic rock-n-beer hangout, and since we don’t have many bands like that in good old motherland (Buzzer, which isn’t very active lately, and that’s pretty much it) I say – way to go! Anyhow, if you’re a fan of the style you will surely enjoy their show, and if you’re not – you won’t suffer.

Dukatalon is a different case. Their music is truly unique – especially considering the Israeli scene. In fact, the amount of compliments I want to give them made writing this text pretty uninteresting. What they play is sludge, subtly spiced with some doom and hard rock. Musical quality, originality, thorough composing, their own distinguishing sound, great energetic drive and chemistry between the musicians – this trio has it all.

All the components I appreciate in music are present, and the band sounds great both live and recorded. Their long, heavy, low keyed compositions take you into a slow dark psychogenic swirl. The music is felt by the whole body and the damned soul, as much as it is heard by one’s ears. Intense and precise drumming, heavy riffs that blend with the bass, short, melodic and beautiful guitar soloing and occasional roaring vocals that sound as they were coming from a grave – all those components fall into place perfectly and create truly classical compositions. The result – deep and somewhat enchanting music – I could listen to them for hours. This is the sound of Hell slowly melting in them dark red flames, boys and girls. Performing live, the musicians themselves seem to be in a state of a light trance, which is maintained as long as they keep playing. If you’re lucky – you’re sucked into this trance.

The guitarist (and vocalist) and the bassist stood off stage with the amplifiers right behind their backs. The drums were placed on stage – behind them. What can I say, those amplifiers really chew on your soul, enhancing the feeling that you are somewhere inside the music. Dukatalon played for about an hour – starting with a new song and playing all the material from their only album to date – “Saved by Fear”. (The album was produced by the notorious Billy Anderson and released by Sleeping Village and now is going to be re-released by Relapse). I like shows that meddle with your sense of time – and that was the case. When they finished playing the feeling was as returning from some next door parallel reality back to this crappy world. Levontin’s dark basement is surely a suitable place for this kind of sounds.

I’ve been following Dukatalon for about four years now, (almost since the band started out) after I first saw them live in Givat Brener’s legendary Gravitzki pub. Possibly, it was their first show. I still remember very clearly listening to Dukatalon’s music while sitting on the old shag’s porch and looking at firewood burn inside the heating stove on a cool winter night. Seeing a truly great, but anonymous band has always been the ultimate experience for me. Since then Dukatalon recorded an album, got a record deal and toured Europe, but remained almost totally unknown at home. About forty people came to the show – and that with another band – Stash, which has been around for quite some time as well. It was the fifth time I’ve seen Dukatalon live  – and almost every time I saw them with a different bassist. (They’ve switched three of them, I think) This time I was surprised (for the best) to see Lior From M.e.s.s manning the battle station. The aggressive musical approach of M.e.s.s is very different from Dukatalon’s mild heavy and dark rock-n-roll drive, however, the bass player seems to fit in just fine. He brings his own subtle touch, slightly different from what I’ve heard before, but I think it’s only for the best.

The sludge genre is hardly represented at all in our country; right now I think Dukatalon is the only active band around. But we surely have a representative from the top league. Dukatalon is the reason I started to be deeply interested in sludge, a genre I had a merely coincidental acquaintance with, up to four years ago. One can surely find influences of other bands such as Sourvein or Sleep, but for me Dukatalon will always remain number one. I started getting into sludge because of them, and they’re our own local villagers’ pride.