Haifa, Israel · psytrance · electronica

Infected Mushroom

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Israeli duo who never sat still — psytrance roots with rock and electronica grafted on, and a live show that leans into all of it.

Erez Eisen and Amit Duvdevani both grew up with classical piano training in Haifa before turning to electronic music. Eisen began on organ at four and studied piano at the Haifa Conservatory from age eight, later moving into computer-based composition. Duvdevani studied piano for nine years, then played in the Haifa punk band Enzyme before attending his first trance party in 1991 and spending a year living in Goa, India.

Infected Mushroom is the Israeli duo of Erez Eisen and Amit Duvdevani, formed in Haifa in 1996. They took their name from a local punk band that had already broken up, drew as much on The Prodigy and Metallica as on the psytrance scene around them, and rank among the best-selling acts in Israeli music history, at home and abroad.

Their first album, The Gathering, appeared in 1999, inspired by Simon Posford and acts such as X-Dream and Transwave, and its track 'Psycho' sampled the film Batman & Robin. It was among the records that carried Israeli psytrance to a wider international audience.

Their early records, including Classical Mushroom and B.P. Empire, are landmarks of Goa and psytrance, built on fast, intricate arpeggios and long-form arrangements. B.P. Empire's 'Dancing with Kadafi' moves through Middle-eastern melodic lines into a classical piano break played by Eisen and Duvdevani themselves.

From Converting Vegetarians onward the pair began folding in rock guitar, vocals and broader electronic styles, and after relocating to Los Angeles they moved further toward electro house and bass-oriented material without abandoning the psytrance framework. Duvdevani sings and plays guitar, and their live shows draw on that hybrid, combining instruments with the studio productions rather than presenting a straight DJ set.

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psytranceelectronica