Rabbi Max Unleashes Drum-heavy Inst. Hip-Hop/Free Jazz Album TRANSאTLANTIC Mastered By: Odd Nosdam (I Had An Accident Records)

Rabbi Max AKA Ori (@rabbigmax) AKA Ori Ginzburg is a big, red-bearded multi-instrumentalist, producer, and "visual poetry" artist originally hailing from Jerusalem, who briefly resided in New York City, and now, calls Oakland, California home. Spokane-based imprint I Had An Accident Records (IHAA Records) released Rabbi Max's album-length debut, INTERKONTINENTAL back in 2016, although, he has quietly been releasing frantic mixtapes and stand-alone tracks since about 2014. "My music is described as beautiful, horrible, hogwash, genius, maundering, precise, quaint, Avant-Garde, historical, hackneyed, masterful, trivial, intense, mystical, virtuosic, gnarly, absorbing, concise, absurd, amusing, eerie, innovative, nostalgic, gruesome, contemporary, sophisticated, trash, and masterpiece," Rabbi Max cryptically writes on his Bandcamp page. Just this past Friday, June 1st, Rabbi Max unleashed his second proper full-length, TRANSATLANTIC—or "TRANSאTLANTIC" with the Hebrew Aleph/A—on limited edition cassette tape and digital on IHAA Records. Harnessed within is a unique, largely genre-eschewing sound created by Rabbi Max on his drum set, a few analog synths, Noise toys, a drum machine, and of course, The Torah; falling somewhere in-between Space/Free Jazz, Instrumental Hip-Hop, and drum-heavy Electronic & Breakbeat-leaning music. However, stylistically, I would likely compare Rabbi Max's TRANSATLANTIC to the likes of BADBADNOTGOOD, Cut Chemist, Edan, Flying Lotus, The Gaslamp Killer, and Thundercat.


"Transatlantic is the way the sounds and feelings travel from the source out; through The Atlantic," Rabbi Max told The Witzard exclusively, via email. "It also, is the connection between my two worlds," he continued. TRANSאTLANTIC's seven contained track titles are, actually, written in Yiddish: Track 1. "Beyz" = "Wicked," 3. "Der Dikhter" = "The Poet," 4. "Meshugener" = "Crazy," 5. "Meser Sharpener" = "Knife Sharpener," and 6. "Almone" = "Widow." Rabbi Max recruited a few friends to assist him in creating TRANSATLANTIC's worldly soundscapes, including Jaffa, Israel-based musician Amit Ben Ami, who plays mandolin on "Der Dikhter," and local Oakland knife sharpener and guitarist Austin Freese on "Meser Sharpener." TRANSאTLANTIC was mastered by anticon co-founder, world-renown DJ, Hip-Hop producer, and visual artist Odd Nosdam, who Rabbi Max worked closely with at his Berkeley, California home studio. A very limited supply of Rabbi Max's super-limited edition (only 50!) custom orange TRANSATLANTIC cassette tapes are currently still available from I Had An Accident Records, as well as Rabbi Max directly, but get one, while you can because they're moving fast! Rabbi Max is additionally, selling Kosher DIY pocketed black T-shirts for $15.00 on his Bandcamp, which conveniently, comes with a high-quality download of TRANSATLANTIC, as well.