Clones & False Prophets

Middle East gone Krautrock! Raz Mesinai was born in Jerusalem, Israel/Palestine in 1973, and raised in both Jerusalem and New York City. As a child Raz spent much of his time in the Sinai Desert with the Bedouins (desert nomads). Among them was dervish Sufi Sheik Murshid Hassan who taught Raz, among other things, the subtle and direct art of Middle Eastern percussion. When Raz's family moved to NY, he continued his musical education under Jewish storyteller and musician Rabbi Schlomo Carlebach, becoming an expert in Persian, Indian, Yemenite, Moroccan, and Afro-Cuban rhythms. By the age of 16 he was selling his homemade dub cassettes on the streets of New York. Eventually, along with DJ Spooky, DJ Olive, Soulslinger & Wordsound I Powa, he joined NYC's Academy of Underground DJs and founded Rotor (a collective of composers focusing on the turntable as electronic instrument) with DJ Olive and Toshio Kajiwara. He also founded the influential duo Sub Dub with John Ward. Apart from ROIR, Raz has released albums on Asphodel, Instinct, BSI, & John Zorn's Tzadik label.