In the above photo-shot of the CD-cover, a happy couple (Israeli-Ethiopian photo-model Sarit Taraka, who, by the way, plays the black beauty praised in Houdini´s love-song, and Joe Fleisch) holds, instead of their newborn, a dead chicken. In the CD booklet, this is followed by a large printed slogan: "God forbid, not a lifeless baby, only a slaughtered chicken", paraphrasing Joe Fleisch's attitude as a singer. His wild, heterogeneous and eclectic compilation inserts the language of his parents into different styles of contemporary pop music, where Yiddish is so uncommon since it has been nearly wiped out amongst the secular, and has generally remained alive among religious Jews.
The different approaches on this album might emerge in the future as a unique and homogenous series, whether the party-drunken electro-gipsy-craze of ElektroYid that Joe Fleisch founded together with producer Ori Kaplan of "Balkan Beat Box", covering and reawakening old immigration and wedding songs of a distant past, or - look out especially for this one - the electro-pop of the Gitelle Shpitz & Joe Fleisch Project, that continues to transport 80's mega-hits into Yiddish, as they have just now achieved with the world-famous German New Wave hit Da Da Da. And, Essay Recordings-devotees might of course remember the Italo-disco-obsessed Jewrhythmics, who have already published an album presenting traditional Yiddish folk songs in this unexpected context, featuring Joe Fleisch in their video-release.
Enjoy "Black but Sweet" by the Jewish Monkeys again and again and look out for more to come from this daring producer of the arts.