Two decades since they formed in New York and over ten years since their last album, Tel Aviv based quartet Shotnez are back with a new single and an upcoming album.

Featuring the original Balkan Beat Box producers Ori Kaplan and Tamir Muskat, the vibrations fly from North African desert blues and Mulatu Astatke inspired jazz, to the swing of Nigerian Afrobeat and 1950s Afro-Cuban jams. This is jazz for the disoriented, balkan beats for the refined, all wrapped in a smoky, tropical haze.

Shotnez are a Tel Aviv based four-piece who create jazzy and cinematic grooves and soundscapes, often with eastern and African motifs. Loosely shaped from the old skool, with funky blue note sounds and Romani brass bands all firing in the pot, the group today release Last Straw, the first single from Dose A Nova, a new album set for release via Batov Records on October 14th.

Originally formed back in New York City in the early 2000s, the group are now reunited for a new era. The current line up is Ori Kaplan and Tamir Muskat from Balkan Beat Box, Uri Kinrot from Boom Pam and Itamar Ziegler from The Backyard. Over a period of four months in 2021, the four musicians (all who are producers with some kind of green shoots into hip hop) met up once a week in a compact, former suburban carpentry studio in Tel Aviv, downing their midi cards, triggers and synths, instead picking up and playing instruments. Traditional instruments. Saxophone, clarinet, guitar, percussion and drums. 

The resulting recordings have the hallmarks of a group under no pressure, no deadlines, no pressure of labels knocking on doors. It's a product of a real sense of camaraderie, musical community and cohesiveness, a collective desire to find a higher plane. And now, having partnered with label Batov Records, coming soon to a record player and concert hall near you.