infected mushrooms!

Infected Mushroom (אינפקטד מאשרום) is an Israeli psychedelic trance duo which has attained significant popularity from the late 1990s to the present time (2007). Formed by Erez Eizen (also known as I.Zen) and Amit Duvdevani (also known as Duvdev) in the city of Haifa, located in the northern parts of Israel, the duo has garnered a large international fanbase. Infected Mushroom are known for their consistent sonic evolution exemplified by the subsequent albums The Gathering (1999), Classical Mushroom (2000), B.P. Empire (2001), Converting Vegetarians (2003), IM the Supervisor (2004), and Vicious Delicious (2007).

Members

Erez Eizen was born on September 8, 1980 and has early musical training; he learned to play the organ at age 4 and started studying piano in the Haifa Conservatory at the age of 8. At age 11 he started toying with computerized music, first using Impulse Tracker, later moving to more advanced musical composition software. By the age of 18, Erez had collaborated with DJ Jörg and other notable psytrance artists, and had released 3 albums and a multitude of tracks under different psytrance acts (including Shidapu and Shiva Shidapu).

Amit Duvdevani was born on November 7, 1974 and has a similar musical background. He played the piano for 9 years, starting at the age of 7, before taking a turn towards heavy metal and punk rock. Amit played keyboard and wrote most of the material for a local Haifa punk rock band known as Enzyme. Amit went to his first trance party in 1991, a week before being conscripted into the Israeli army (where he was first nicknamed Duvdev). He has more than once described this experience as life changing - from that time onwards all he could think of was trance music. After he finished his mandatory service, Amit spent a year in India (primarily in Goa), and finally decided to make music himself. He collaborated with a member of Shidapu on 4 tracks but never actually released them.

In 1998, Eizen and Duvdevani began playing together. At first they released a few tracks as Shidapu & Duvdev. These tracks were 'happier' and of the simpler side of trance. Later on, they formed the duo Infected Mushroom and started working on their first album. The name Infected Mushroom was chosen to commemorate a disbanded (1989 to 1993) punk rock band of the same name, which Amit had admired.

Guitarists Tom Cunningham and Erez Netz joined in 2004 - Tom plays with Infected Mushroom in the United States, while Erez Netz plays the rest of their gigs. Netz is a famous guitarist from Israel, and he opens their live shows with some electric guitar exhibition - playing with his mouth. As of 2007, Infected Mushroom has also brought in Brazilian percussionist Rogério Jardim to play drums and percussion during their shows.

Infected Mushroom's newest album - "Vicious Delicious" has sparked controversy among many fans who claim that the band "has progressively gotten lighter and more poppy"^{[citation needed]}.