Emok are a hard-hitting, precedent breaking three piece whose members all originally hail from Israel, currently residing in Brooklyn. Their debut album Shove Your Head into the Ground and Feed It to the Earth will be released on Wrong Records in Winter 2005. Shove Your Head into the Ground and Feed It to the Earth, on Wrong Records is a collision of composition and cacophony; intellect and emotion; heritage and progression. The album was recorded, produced, and designed entirely by the band. Emok??™s music has a pronounced Middle Eastern influence stemming from their Israeli upbringing, but restated as an explosive, intense, thoroughly modern _ even futuristic _ style uniquely their own. The songs on Shove Your Head into the Ground and Feed It to the Earth are whirling storm systems sonic hurricane force colored with vivid distortion and crackling slipstreams of harsh electronic samples. Throughout the sound is potent and relentless, utterly engulfing the listener in its dark fury, sonic tendrils probing the powerful, hidden places deep inside the psyche. The words are torn and conflicted, attempting to reconcile the ideal with the real _ influenced by the circumstances of their homeland. Lyrics evince both fear and hope: they address global hate, unification by fear, distrust in political systems, divided empathy, and frustration with all that, then alternate that with idylls of exotic lands, the trust bred through friendship, hope, and escape. They released a five song EP in early 2004 to much positive critical response:Emok slap a crunch low range and heavy riffage, spiced with a generous helping of explosive percussion of a distinctly Middle Eastern flavor. With an intensity that would sit comfortably along side RATM, Helmet, or Shellac, this shit-stomping romp down familiar paths offers up some delectable surprises. Kerrang! Israeli expatriates produce pounding, raging music that at times reminds one of a heavier Jane?fs Addiction, but should be very pleasing to any Rage Against The Machine fan. On the groundwork of AmRep/Shellac-style warped grooves, something wholly contemporary is built. Screamed, passionate, disjointed hardcore explodes in your face, with all sorts of splinters ricocheting, wounding you some more. On one end it?fs almost metalcore, on another it?fs almost hip-hop. Yet it maintains a bruised, urgent consistency throughout. Scorching stuff. Terrorizer"Peace Of Land" alternately gives the Palestinian and Israeli views on their tragic, ongoing conflict. It grew out of the band members?f frustration on realizing that their government was keeping vital news and information from the Israeli people regarding this situation and what part the U.S. government?fs policy of global interference had on it ("What we say goes" - President George Bush Sr.) On the other hand "Trust" is about personal friendship, escape and mutual emotion support. "Cover up your eyes / I will take you by the hand / Far away from here / To a place where we can hide." "Field Of Thorns" is written from the perspective of a disenchanted soldier, "Isolated all alone / Far away from our homes / Chasing our own behinds / With the most intelligent minds" The members of Emok -- Itai (Vocals/Bass), Ofer (Vocals/Guitar), and Bul (Drums/Drum-like-sounds) -- all grew up in the beautiful, pastoral tranquility of Northern Israel in a very secluded and tiny (50 families) village called Amuka, located in the middle of a forest in West Galilee. Amuka is situated next to the tomb of a holy rabbi where people regularly make pilgrimages seeking healing from a rabbi currently residing there (according to the band, the place is haunted. There is even a downhill road there where, if you put your car in neutral, it will start accelerating uphill!). Itai and Ofer knew each other from a very young age, their families being very close. Ofer saw Bul playing at a local festival and realized that he was the missing ingredient in their band, got in contact with him and the band began sneaking out to the kibbutz Bul lived at, practicing in its school?fs music room late at night. Later on they "upgraded" and practiced at an air raid shelter, which was their favorite place to rehearse because they, "couldn?ft hear the jets going on bombing raids or machine gun fire from the nearby military base." When Emok first began playing publicly, they put on shows in the forest and would arrange to bus kids in from nearby kibbutzes for the performances. Eventually they moved to Tel Aviv where they built a strong following playing local shows. Soon they were playing the biggest music festivals in Israel and opening for the major Israeli rock bands and then for visiting foreign acts including Prodigy. Because they sang in English and were conspicuously experimental in their outlook, once they??™d outgrown the alternative audience they realized they could make no further progress in their home country winning over more mainstream audiences. Their thunderous and complex style seemed out of place back home. In 1998 they decided to address new challenges and emigrated to New York, first living on the Lower East Side before moving out to Brooklyn where they still live and work, building up a strong following through incendiary, mind-expanding shows at Pianos, Knitting Factory, Sin-e, Rothko, and Lit among others.