Band: JUJU Who: The project of Italian
multi-instrumentalist Gioele Valenti
“Sicilian multi-instrumentalist and producer is a key figure of the European underground music scene. He is one half of acclaimed Occult Psych project Llay Lamas (Rocket Recordings). He is the man behind Herself, a folktronica project that involved the likes of Jonathan Donahue of Mercury Rev, John Fallon of The Steppes and Amaury Cambuzat of Faust and Ulan Bator. He was also the guitarist of Josefin Öhrn + The Liberation. Most importantly, he is the creator of
the unclassifiable JuJu. Championed by Goatman and Capra Informis of GOAT, JuJu have already released three albums (two of which with Fuzz Club Records) and left a permanent mark in the international Psychedelic scene and beyond.”
“JuJu are known for their signature sound merging their Mediterranean influences with styles like Afrobeat, Krautrock, Psychedelia (Occult Psych) and Art Rock. This new album marks a shift to a much more “western” imagery, combining Post Punk, Shoegaze, Darkwave, Industrial, Synthpop, R’n’R with Dance, Club and Disco. Sonically, JuJu have somehow migrated from the South to the North, but without losing the mystical knowledge and experience gathered in their previous wanderings.”
Four years after mind-boggling album Our Mother Was A PlantGioele Valenti and
his alter ego project Jujureturn with La Que Sabe. And he’s still playing with our minds with his ongoing groove-tastic jams, with his psychedelia-fueled extravaganza and
24-hour party trips.
From the infectious, repetitive electro-driven rocket Not This Time to the fade-out of closing cut Beautiful Mother Juju pushes your adrenalin production in overdrive. The transcendent vibrations of Nothing Endures, Could You Believe and She’s Perfect put a Krautrock spell on you, Walk The Line has an energetic panache while its haunting choir-like vocals resonate like a manic mantra and Seven Days In The Sun has a soothing effect. Don’t be afraid, all these sonic drug injections are legal.
Still, looking for the soundtrack to dance 2021 away with next week?
Trust me, stop looking, here’s all your mind, heart and soul, and body needs.
Album: JUJU – 4th LP Released: June 1981 – 40 years ago
Steve Severin (guitarist/producer): “Juju was the first time we’d made a “concept”
album that drew on darker elements. It wasn’t pre-planned, but, as we were writing, we saw a definite thread running through the songs, almost a narrative to the album as a whole”.
AllMusic said: “The upfront intensity of Juju probably isn’t matched anywhere else in the catalog of Siouxsie and the Banshees. Thanks to its killer singles, unrelenting force, and invigorating dynamics, Juju is a post-punk classic.” Full review here. Score: 4/5.
Artist:JUJU Who: Italian multi-dimensional psych explorer and
hypnotizing groove Gioele Valenti Album: MAPS AND TERRITORY / Third LP Sound: An enthralling 40-min expedition of trance-like vibrations, ecstatic vibe-o-rama trips, sonic expansions and ongoing hypnotizing experiences. Frontierless euphony inspired by a relentless search for universal happiness via tantalizing jams that uplifts troubled hearts, revitalizes confused souls and tranquilizes disoriented minds. Top LP!
After his sensitive alter ego Herself released the beautifully intimate album Playground Rigel last year, Italy’s multi-instrumentalist Gioele Valenti returns with his psychedelic groove project JUJU. Third longplayer MAPS AND TERRITORY will be released at the end of next month viaFuzz Club Records.
Ahead of it comes new track I’M IN TRANCE featuring Swedish rhythm wizard Goat. An infectious, repetitive electro-driven groove with a pulsating cadence going on like forever while blurry vocals hovering all over the tribal African beats. Midway a 60s Hendrix like guitar sequence gives the throbbing and trippy flow an electrical shot before this multi-layered eurythmics gets back to its transcendent vibrations tripping in your head by now. Capture the mind-pleasing and otherworldly ride right here…
Turn Up The Volume saw about 150 acts playing live this past year. Here are the 15 Knockout Performances that made his body temperature going way up, made his adrenalin stream faster and had a lasting impact on his greedy ears & impressed eyes.
1. THE FLAMING LIPS – Melkweg, Amsterdam – 11 November – Review here
2. SLOWDIVE – Cactus Brugge Festival – 15 July – Review here
3. IDLES – De Zwerver, Leffinge, Belgium – 2 November – Review here
4. JOHNNY MARR – Trix Club, Antwerp – 7 December – Review here
5. FONTAINES D.C. – Botanique, Brussels – 4 May – Review here
6. NOEL GALLAGHER – Vorst National, Brussels – 6 April
7. THE GLÜCKS – Ghent Fest – 19 July – Review here
8. RUMOURS – Cosa Nostra, Aalst – 21 April – Review here
9. JUJU – Kinky Star, Ghent – 18 February – Review here
10. PEUK – De Kleine Kunst, Ghent – 8 September – Review here
11. AUTOBAHN – Kinky Star, Ghent – 11 February – Review here
12. FALLING MAN – Ghent Fest – 14 July – Interview here
13. PERE UBU – 4 AD, Diksmuide – 1 June – Review here
14. TUBELIGHT – Charlatan, Ghent – 23 March – Review here
15. PINK ROOM – Kinky Star, Ghent – 3 March – Review here
From the beautiful city of Palermo in Italy, here’s… JUJU
Experienced and eclectic singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist GIOELE VALENTI is the ingenious mastermind behind spellbinding psych collective JUJU. Valenti is not only an exquisite musician but also a fascinating, broad-minded human being with a multicolored vision on mankind’s past, present and future. The way he combines astonishing soundscapes with profound reflections on our troubled planet is nothing less than remarkable. Last year Juju released OUR MOTHER WAS A PLANT LP. A trippy work of transcendent vibrations. From cinematic Pink Floyd echoes to Hawkind‘s spacey escapades and some king-sized Massive Attack jams in between. After seeing/meeting signor Valenti last month in my hometown Ghent (Belgium) where the band played an impressive set we got in touch for this interview. Let’s start the acquaintance first with one of the highlights of the LP…
. Welcome Gioele at Turn Up The Volume!…
1/ You were in several bands before, Gioele. When and why did you start the JuJu project ? “Back in 2015. The reason is always the same, I think: to make music without frontiers. In this case, I just wanted to say something on the migration of masses we’re facing in this particular historical moment. Sicily is one of the poles of the crisis, in the Mediterranean, we have been defined as the ‘gate of Europe‘… a term with a very ambiguous semantic value, because it could conceal a discharge of responsibility from a political point of view. Anyway, I think that migration of bodies, languages, symbols are a very fertile soil for an artist’s imagination.”
2/ What’s the story behind the project’s name? “Juju is a West African word. It refers to a system of belief. JuJu can be a spell, can be incorporated objects, amulets… It sounds good, with its powerful witchy meaning. I love playing with symbols.”
3/ When did you know “this is how I want to sound, this is what I want to tell the world”? “Mmm, it’s quite hard. Riding on a highway with God as co-pilot, facing the hell of passion and the transcendence of a free-form spirit. I’m a songwriter, and I’m a drop in an ocean, so I’m just following the path of my predecessors, with a light in my head and an abyss of shadows behind. Sorry, I know it may sound a little naïve, but I cannot define myself better than this.”
4/ Only two months in the new year and I already saw two great Italian bands play Belgium (Secret Sight and JuJu) and I interviewed two (The Bankrobber and Japan Suicide). Is that a coincidence or is a new Italian wave on its way to conquer Europe? “When I hear “conquer” I’m scared. It has to do with a tradition with which we have to break. I feel closer to the spirit of Renaissance. Sweetness, otherness proposal, brotherhood in the beauty. As an Italian, I can only claim an aesthetic supremacy over the pettiness of politics. Anyway, it’s great to see great Italian bands around, sure.”
5/ Which song would you pick as Juju’s signature track? “‘In A Ghetto’, I think. It’s the one with my friend Capra Informis from Goat at the djembé. I think it incorporates all the magic I’m just trying to express with JuJu. I hear on that track the feminine power of soil and a mood that is close to a Mercurial point of view. The transformation is the point. We are all living in a ghetto, in a way. Call it drugs, sex, technology… we are not free as human beings. It’s sad.”
6/ What’s the story behind the album’s title ‘Our Mother Was A Plant’ and how is it related to the music and to the image on the LP’s front sleeve? “I was reading a lot of beat literature. I love the lysergic aspects of life, and I think that we should demonstrate more respect for plants… they are very ancient beings, more powerful than we think. The relation with the cover instead is more subtle. If we’d be able to expand our consciousness over a routine world, we would find a deep connection. No separation, no sexism, no racism, in a word brotherhood. There’s a Maya greeting called ‘In Lak’ech’, it means ‘I am another yourself‘. The ‘A Chosen Few’ was the first motorcycle club made by black people. They opened to white people. I think that is a very successful experiment of integration. Al those meanings mixed together make sense to me. Tout se tient, they say in France.”
Artwork album…
7/ JuJu’s music covers a whole range of psychedelic genres and is influenced by several decades of mind-expanding music. Is it also a reflection of your private record collection? “Definitely. I love music and I live through rhythm. JuJu is a tribute to the great music I have grown up with. From Mozart to Joy Division, Tom Waits, John Zorn, Dead Kennedys, Misfits, Billy Idol, The Cure, Janis Joplin, The Jesus And Mary Chain, The Telescopes, Procol Harum, The Doors, AC/DC, Pink Floyd, Angelo Branduardi, Ligeti, Ennio Morricone, Grieg and so on and on…”
8/ What movie would you pick to visualize JuJu’s music on a big screen on stage when playing a show? “Lord Of The Flies, 1963. The human being is flexible and adaptable. The deepest fears are the same everywhere.”
9/ If you could go back in time on which artist’s front door would you knock and ask to have a selfie together? “Italian painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. The hard part would be to explain the concept of a ‘selfie‘ to the master of portraits!”
Selfie-portrait of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio
10/ Plans for 2018? “I’m desperately planning to not make plans! As Woody Allen once said:’If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.'”
Many thanks for this highly interesting and rich interview, Gioele! Mat the road rise with you and Juju…
TWELVE KNOCKOUTS I played on repeat in FEBRUARY!
An ace cocktail of addictive bangers & smoking grooves
activating all my senses and itchy limbs this past month! TURN UP THE VOLUME! Here are twelve stellar kicks…
2/ ‘Shiny One’ by BELLY (Boston, US)
Boston’s guitar popsmiths return with sultry groove energized with a glorious chorus… Album: ‘Dove’ out 4 May – all info right here
3/ ‘Dig’ by SEAZOO (Wales)
Irresistible earworm with rich harmonies and a sticky chorus going under your skin… Album: Trunks – out now – stream/purchase via Bandcamp
4/ ‘New Values’ by SHOPPING (London/Glasgow)
Electro weirdness and glimmering guitars. Highly feverish beat, snappy as bloody hell… Album: The Official Body – out now – stream/purchase via Bandcamp
5/ ‘And Play A Game’ by JUJU (Italy)
Intoxicating psychedelia with a multi-layered, mind-boggling and trippy flow! Ace!… Album: Our Mother Was A Plant – stream/purchase on Bandcamp
6/ ‘Sleep / Paralysis by PLATTENBAU (base: Berlin,Germany)
Electro paranoia with tribal drums pushing the startling Krautrock beat continuously…
7/ ‘Perfect Routine’ by TUBELIGHT (Belgium)
The Fall is dead! Long live Tubelight! Belgian top band scores big time… Album: Expert By Virtue, Thereof out now – available on iTunes
8/ ‘Temper’ by SUSS CUNTS(Melbourne, Australia)
Amplified jingle jangle riffage from down under. Witty and punky. Strapping score!
9/ ‘Greenman’ by SCHOOL DISCO ((Plymouth, United Kingdom)
Surf injected psychedelia with a rockabilly Cramps edge. A spacey firecracker all the way…
10/ ‘Stop’ by HOUSEHATS (Norway/Australia)
Unstoppable bolide fueled by relentless, repetitive riffs. Infectious & head-spinning stuff…
11/ ‘Suck The Blood From My Wound’ by EZRA FURMAN (Evanston, IL, US) Mixed emotions passion and a heartfelt intensity that gives you goosebumps… Album: Transangelic Exodus – out now – on iTunes
12/ ‘Stargazer’ by THE CROWLEYS (Hamilton, Canada)
Spellbinding psych escapade driven by endless, sparkling riffs that will enchant you… EP: new one called COLOURS CHANGE THEIR TONE – discover/stream/purchase here
JUJU – Kinky Star, Ghent, Belgium – 18 February 2018
Despite the fact that on an average Sunday evening the majority of humankind prefers to fall asleep in front of the TV this cool, small club in Ghent (Belgium), called Kinky Star (one
of Turn Up The Volume‘s fav hang-out places) was packed with hungry psych fans eager to watch/hear Italian collective JUJU, a mind-expanding squadra build around experienced Sicilian sound explorer and singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Gioele Valenti (Lay Llamas, Herself). Last year they released sophomore LP debut album ‘Our Mother Was A Plant‘ via Fuzz Club Records. A truly impressive, trippy work of transcendent vibrations. From cinematic Pink Floyd echoes to Hawkind‘s spacey rock escapades and some stellar spellbinding tribal jams to pump up the beat. Something like this…
If you’re hooked on exciting, elevating stuff like here above you just ignore TV and jump out in the cold night to get a mind-massage by this tremendous artist and his fabulous orchestra because what you get is trance injected jams that infiltrate your bloodstream instantly and kaleidoscopic wizardry covering several decades. From 60s cult heroes Iron Butterfly‘s psych power to British dance experts Leftfield‘s hallucinogenic vision and many woozy influences in between. Bewitching music without sonic frontiers, rhapsodic music with an appetite for continuous discovery, upraising music to absorb on record and on stage. Valenti ‘s sparkling guitar play and distorted voice are upfront, but he surrounds himself cleverly with inspired musicians in order to translate his amplified reveries to the utmost and the result was just flabbergasting. A riveting journey from start to finish. Magnifico!…
TURN UP THE VOLUME 