Yuvi Havkin, aka Rejoicer, is a producer from Tel Aviv who has been helping cultivate Israel’s beat scene with his own Raw Tapes label. Now he makes his debut on Stones Throw with his full-length album, Energy Dreams.

In case you were wondering like a beat artist from Tel Aviv sounds like, the answer in this case is that he sounds very much like one from Los Angeles. This is neither a good or bad thing, but I listened to the album once without reading up on anything about Rejoicer, and just assumed based on his sound and that he’s signed to Stones Throw that he’s from L.A. What this means is that his prog/jazz influenced electronic beats sound very much at home alongside artists like Flying Lotus and mndsgn (fun fact – mndgsn actually shows up to play keyboards on the song “PURPLE T-SHIRTS,” just to further my point). There are a lot of busy and moving bass lines, interaction between horns and synthesizers, and delicate jazz drumming. Rejoicer does a great job of creating these really dreamy soundscapes where you can really lose yourself inside these gently rocking rhythms while warm melodic elements build up around you and take you on a journey. It’s an amazing album to listen to on your headphones and just get lost in, so you can just let go and trust Rejoicer to steer you through these subtly complex compositions. He does a really great job of building around motifs and taking you through the cycles as he continues to build and expand around them and lets everything slowly transform into something quite different than when you first started.

All things said, it doesn’t really matter where Rejoicer is from, Energy Dreams is a good album any way you slice it. He’s a talented producer, and he’s clearly taken the time to compose some instrumental music that will capture your attention from start to finish.