I can hardly imagine what it must be like to be living in Israel right now. Terrorism and conflict may have finally hit home here in the U.S., but we're not even remotely close to the numbing cycle of violence and counterviolence the people of the Levant live with every day. The geek in me just has to ask: What kind of bands form in that sort of climate? It's easy to think of angry, depressing music coming out of every practice space in the country, but I somehow doubt that's what prevails; if anything, I'd think people would be eager to escape the news of the day whenever they throw a CD on, or head out to a club.

Tel Aviv quartet RockFour sound so removed from the Negev Desert and the Wailing Wall, you'd be hard-pressed to even guess at their origins. In fact, RockFour sound incredibly like a product of late-60s Britain-- a little bit of early Pink Floyd, a lot of Beatles, a pinch of Byrds, a smidgen of The Zombies-- with the occasional exception in the form of a punishing interlude, or strange, studio-strangled breakdown. I don't need to tell you that the 60s revival game has been played to played-out, but that's probably the most remarkable thing: These four guys from Israel make it fresh again, and in the process put to shame just about any American or British throwback act you could point to.

For one thing, their English lyrics slay any neo-hippie garbage the average neo-Nuggets band tosses out, ranging from incisive questioning of institutions and social responsibility ("Government") to things as fundamental to pop music as love. And mind you, their first language isn't even English (it's Hebrew). Far more impressive, though, is RockFour's uncanny grasp of their influences, and their ability to expand on those points of reference, to the point where Another Beginning largely transcends them.

"Oranges", with its opening jangle and impeccable harmonies, is undeniably indebted to the Byrds, but it gradually morphs into something else entirely, as swelling keyboards and darting Moog overwhelm the 12-string jangle. Unpredictable twists and shifts in texture seem to lurk around every corner, from weird vocal interjections and charging codas on the title track to the startling tempo change that rips open the shifting guitar and lilting melody of "One Fantastic Day". The guitar tone in its faster interlude is incredibly dirty and sinister, and the shift back into familiar territory is nearly as disorienting.

RockFour clearly have their craft down pat (the band has four other albums out), as there's literally no filler on Another Beginning. In the end, it's probably best to ignore the relative novelty of their origins, as every one of the thirteen songs here delivers. Another Beginning is a remarkable collection that, while it treads widely-covered ground, is also sharp, inventive and most importantly, unpredictable.

-Joe Tangari, February 7th, 2003