JuJu is the latest
incarnation of Sicily-based Gioele Valenti, who has previously recorded under
the name Herself several records of apocalyptic folk lo-fi songs and was also a
member of the Lay Llamas for the recording and touring of their Ostro album.
His most recent release as Herself was the Gleaming EP, a fantastic
collaboration with the Laissez Fairs (the Las Vegas based maximum Mod/Psych band
formed by John Fallon ex of the legendary Irish/American 80s Psych band The
Steppes), read the Strange Things Are Happening review here. His new project,
released by Sunrise Ocean Bender, is an excursion into the Psych Magik of West African
rhythmic psychedelia, ancient myths and Mediterranean neo-paganism. Mixing
African grooves with distorted Psych Rock, the new JuJu release is a concept
album of sorts, telling the story of an
on-going exodus from Africa that more often than not ends in ignored tragedies
at sea, ‘a total defeat for humanity.’ Inspired by sources of Earth magic and
soil secrets, JuJu strives to turn that defeat into a celebration of spirit and
modern psychedelia…….. An endless thought to the forgotten of the sea……… We
Are You.
This is a cyclical tale,
beginning with the horrors of war and chaos that leads to a mass refugee flight
to the coast and lost souls taking their chances with perilous boat journeys (which
ultimately ends in disaster). The story goes full circle with even more poor
souls needing to escape war and famine in a never ending cycle of despair as
even more are lost to the sea. The album opens with ‘Samael’ (who is an Angel
from Talmudic lore that brings death and destruction……….thank you Google) which
has a pulsing bass heavy AfroPsych groove, a sound not unlike the mighty Goat's shamanistic rituals, before shifting up a gear and easing into
the driving krautrocker 'We Spit On Yer
Grave' who’s relentless motrik beat and swirling, distorted guitars reminiscent
of TOY’s Neu! influenced tunes. The rest
of the record is equally impressive as the tale takes sail on the waters of the
Mediterranean with the propulsive ‘Stars And Sea’ and ‘Sunrise Ocean’ linked
together by the mournful piano and found sound sketch ‘Dance With The Fish’.
This theme of desolation is continued with ‘Lost’ which starts with haunting
piano and guitar before exploding into a full on contorted Psych Rock wig out
of fuzzed out guitars and distorted voices. The whole thing then returns back
to the start and we begin the whole journey again with the heavy fuzz rock
AfroPsych of ‘Bring ‘Em War’……….JuJu is a poignant story of hope and loss,
which we suspect has an element of personal reflection, with Gioele’s home of
Sicily being one of the main refugee routes into Europe from West Africa, and
wonderful blend of Psychedelia mixed with Afrobeat that is well worth spending
time with......another great SOB release.
Limited to 250 copies on
Orange Crush vinyl, JuJu is due for release on 6th May 2016 and will
be available to pre-order from 6th April 2016 from the Sunrise OceanBender web store (the album will be distributed in N.A. by Cobraside and in
Europe by Clear Spot). JuJu will also available as a digital download at sunriseoceanbender.bandcamp.com. The
Herself and The Laissez Fairs five track EP, Gleaming, is still available on CD
from the Herself Bandcamp page here http://herself1.bandcamp.com/releases.
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