Infected Mushroom is an Israeli musical duo formed in Haifa in 1996 by producers Erez Eisen and Amit Duvdevani.^[1] They produce and perform psytrance, electronica, dream trance and psychedelic music. They are one of the best-selling groups in Israeli music history in terms of both domestic and international sales.^[2]

They employ a variety of musical sources, including acoustic guitars and complex synthesized basses. Their compositions often contain changes of drum beat and tempo. Infected Mushroom's live shows feature vocals and analogue instruments in performances that are set against a multimedia backdrop.

Members

Erez Eisen was born on 8 September 1980 in Qiryat Yam, Israel. He began classical musical training at a young age, learning to play the organ at the age of four^[3] and studying classical piano at the Haifa Conservatory from the age of eight. Eisen later became involved with computerized music, beginning with Impulse Tracker and later moving to more advanced musical composition software.^[4]

Eisen had collaborated with DJ Jörg and other notable psytrance artists by the age of 18,^[5] and has released three albums and many singles under other psytrance monikers, including Shidapu and Shiva Shidapu.^[5][6]

Amit Duvdevani was born on 7 November 1974 in Israel and has a similar musical background as Eisen. He started to play classical piano at age seven and continued to do so for nine years. He then progressed to heavy metal music and punk rock. Duvdevani played keyboards and wrote most of the material for the Haifa punk rock band Enzyme^[7]—he attended his first trance party in 1991.^[8]

Duvdevani was conscripted into the Israel Defense Forces, where he was first nicknamed, "Duvdev".^[9] After he finished his conscription in Israel, Duvdevani lived in India for a year,^[10] primarily in the Indian state of Goa.^[11] Duvdevani later collaborated with a member of Shiva Shidapu on four tracks, but they were never released.^[5]

Career

1996–2004: First four studio albums

Eisen and Duvdevani first began to play together in 1996.^[12] A few of their early efforts were released under the name Shidapu & Duvdev. The duo then renamed themselves Infected Mushroom, a name they stole from a local punk band that had been disbanded. The young duo drew inspiration from The Prodigy and Metallica. In an interview with Psychedelic Magazine, the duo stated they were naturally attracted to the psytrance genre through its popularity.^[12] In 1998 the group began work on their first album, 1999's The Gathering, inspired by Simon Posford, X-Dream and Transwave.^[9] This album featured a dark, rhythmic sonic atmosphere exemplified by its popular track, "Psycho", using a sample from the movie Batman & Robin.^{[citation needed]} It was one of the first albums to bring ‹The templateCategory link is being considered for merging.› Israeli psytrance to mainstream audiences, and contributed to the genre's worldwide popularity.^[13]

Their 2000 album, Classical Mushroom, contained "Bust a Move". The album is commonly referred to as one of the group's best efforts, one in which they continued their sonic evolution, and it remains one of the best-known albums in the genre.^{[citation needed]}

The duo's 2001 B.P. Empire is notable for the musical epic "Dancing with Kadafi", which segues numerous styles of music, most notably through middle-eastern style melodies and a classical break which showcases Erez and Amit's piano skills. The name "Dancing with Kadafi" may be a reference to Erez's cat, who was named Kadafi.

Converting Vegetarians (2003), was a two-disc set. The 'Trance Side' disc contained trance-like dancefloor material comparable to their earlier work, while the disc entitled 'The Other Side' contained genre-bending experimental music. 'The Other Side' included Duvdev's vocal debut on the title track, the down-tempo "Elation Station", and the electro-pop tracks "Blink" and "Illuminaughty".