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Charmed & Strange

by Yoav

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He sings into his guitar, slaps it around quite a bit and you wouldn't be entirely surprised if he happened to throw it down and stomp on it with his bare feet. Born in Israel, raised in South Africa and now splitting his time between Montreal and London, Yoav isn't quite like other singer-songwriters. He counts Timbaland and the Neptunes as major influences and spends as much time coaxing funky rhythms out of his battered acoustic guitar as he does strumming it. He won over Tori Amos' fans after supporting her on tour, which makes sense. The songs on his debut album, Charmed and Strange are quirky and inventive. Listening to the dense, multilayered arrangements on "Adore Adore" and "Club Thing," or even his ethereal take on the Pixies' "Where Is My Mind?," you'd be hard-pressed to believe that the whole thing was played on that poor six-string. -- Aidin Vaziri