(((echoes))) by Sasha Mannequin

AFM016

"This album, (((echoes))), is about my fractured and tenuous connection to Jewishness. The album itself was a process of changing the way I think about time; mourning the erased history of my ancestors; learning about the Shtetlekh across eastern Europe, and how nothing is left of them. (((echoes))) is about a yearning for Yiddish language. It is the new part of me that is the discovery of secular Jewish socialist history. It is a challenge for myself and other Jews to become the threat to whiteness that the far right are so convinced we already are.
The name ‘(((echoes)))’ comes from the fascist corners of the internet, where triple brackets were put around Jewish surnames to represent how those names supposedly "echo throughout history," referencing the Protocols of the Elders of Zion hoax that have been so effective at spreading the ideas of Jewish world conspiracy. A year after it hit the mainstream, that particular dogwhistle had been so widely exposed that anti-Semites have mostly moved on to new ways of targeting and keeping track of Jews online. But the symbol, and what each parenthesis represents ("the destruction of the family unit through mass media degeneracy" is my personal favourite) is too rich in imagery to not use. It is flattering in its on way.

Here are some notes on the songs: Starting with the urgent sound of the Shofar – a ram's horn blown to celebrate the new year, as well as in times of threat and war – the album is informed by the major events of the Jewish year, with the songs '5777' and 'Apples Dipped in Honey' reflecting on Rosh Hashana, 'a god who has failed us so completely' offering a cynical and desperate take on the holy reflection of Yom Kippur, and Parsley Dipped in Salt Water referencing the Seder ritual at Passover. 'Gone To Ground' and 'Jews don't go to berlin for the techno scene' deal with the history and the aftermath of the holocaust, the latter track based on the idea that the Nazi ideals of the white German race still live on in the ways people praise white Germans as smart and industrious, and the way that Berlin, a city where non-white people were so thoroughly exterminated, has become a global party destination. Going to Berlin has become a sort of pilgrimage for white partygoers, who don't see the ghosts that haunt the city. Another major aspect of the album is the history and philosophy of the Jewish Labour Bund, a major socialist organizing force active in Russia, Lithuania and Poland from the 1890s that had core concepts of Yidishkayt – secular Ashkenazi culture – and most importantly Doikayt, which means "here-ness" or "now-ness" and was an anti-zionist stance long before the creation of the state of Israel. It urges Jews to stay and fight capitalism on the land where they live rather than emigrating, and it promotes creating bonds between working class Jews and non-Jews as the best hope for our collective liberation. Even though the concept of belonging is less clear here in a settler colonial nation, I think the internationalist call to Jewish struggle rooted in the places we live is a revelation, and just as Doikayt was once "the Zionist movement’s great rival for the hearts and minds of young Jews," it has the potential to become that again in some form, if we learn from its history and live up to its principles."

Originally released March 22, 2017
sashamannequin.bandcamp.com

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