פורטיס סחרוף - 1900?
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The album 1900? by Rami Fortis and Berry Sakharof was released on May 25, 1990.
This is, for sure, one of the iconic and influential albums in Israeli rock, but it doesn't stop there.
In a way, this album opened the floodgates for dozens of masterpiece albums in Israeli alternative rock during the 1990s.
This is the first album in which Berry Sakharof steps into the spotlight and stands shoulder to shoulder with Rami Fortis as an equal partner. While in the previous album "Stories from the Box" Sakharof participated in the writing and produced the album for his friend Fortis, here he receives full credit as a co-writer, co-creator, and lead vocalist on several tracks, a move that led to the creation of the "Fortisakharof" brand.
Just two years after the breakup of "Minimal Compact" and the release of "Stories from the Box", and only a year after their joint project "Foreign Affair", Fortis and Sakharof began shedding their European façade, their new wave influences, and their dark '80s aesthetic. It’s as if they walked into the Ministry of Interior next to DB Studios and applied for an "Israeli Rocker" ID card.
And like any “new immigrant” still struggling with the accent and trying to adjust to local habits, it took Fortisakharof a bit of time to fully let go of their European mannerisms, still present here and there on the album in tracks like the title song "1900?", "The Day of the Mouse", "Candy", and others.
But despite the occasional echoes of '80s production and sound, Fortisakharof manage to craft in this album a homegrown Israeli alternative rock style, a style that would further crystallize with their live album "When the Guitar Saws Through the Night", released a year later, which would serve as a beacon for the alternative Israeli Rock that would take over the local music scene in the 1990s.
This album produced timeless Israeli rock anthems that are forever etched into the legacy of local rock...
"America" is about the land of opportunity, where on one hand, "they don’t throw stones," yet on the other, a sense of spiritual emptiness reigns, and "even the moon is for sale."
"Nitzotzot" (Sparks), with lyrics written by Fortis, explores the internal other and the struggle within. It’s astonishing to think that Sakharof, who composed the song together with Fortis, initially didn’t want this heart-melting track on the album. Sakharof’s broken chords, Smetana’s pulsing bass like a pacemaker, and the simple yet genius drumming of the late legendary Jean-Jacques Goldberg—together they create pure magic.
The vocal harmonies between Fortis and Sakharof (aided by Micha “Mikiyagi” Sheetrit, who provides backing vocals on this album) have perhaps never sounded better than they do on this haunting and goosebump-inducing song.
"Agam Anakit" ("A Giant Lake") was written during Minimal Compact’s tour in Europe, after the band’s manager, who didn’t speak Hebrew very well, pointed to the scenery and said in broken Hebrew, "What a giant lake," using incorrect grammar that ended up inspiring the song’s title.
"Chalom Kachol" ("Blue Dream") also received an upbeat radio version that was released on the compilation album "Nana Collection No. 1".
And of course, there’s "Ein Ketz LaYaldut" ("No End to Childhood"), whose live version on the album "When the Guitar Saws Through the Night" completely deconstructs the original's small and modest studio version, rebuilding it into a ferocious volcanic eruption of sawing guitars, a transformation that directly connects to the iconic line from the song "Leipzig Barcelona", which gave that live album its name.
The album also features the song "Naalayim" ("Shoes"), an improvised piece that Fortis used to perform live. It became a cult favorite and finally received a recorded and fully produced version here. The song even inspired the name of the rock band "Naalayim", whose lead singer, Eyal Even-Tzur, later collaborated with Fortis on the album "Chetsi Otomati" ("Semi-Automatic").
Over 30 years later, it’s safe to say that "1900?" has lost none of the greatness that surrounded it in the 1990s, on the contrary. It deserves its place among the greatest rock albums ever released in Israel and is without a doubt considered a classic of Israeli rock.
Listen to the album on: Spotify, Apple Music
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