We’re on our way, slowly but surely, to the end of 2025.
Instead of starting to think about this year’s best LPs,
let’s go back to 2024 and listen to TUTV’s 20 Best Albums
again and look back on what we wrote about each one
of them.
Today: No. 12
Artist: JUJU (Italy)
Brainchild of Sicilian multi-instrumentalist
and producer Gioele Valenti.
TUTV: Valenti is a jam champ and a groove master creating electrifying, trance-like vibrations that transfer you to the dark side of your mind, where you can freely
fantasize and explore your own psyche.
Circling Krautrock-like psychedelia is all over the place. Choir chants and spacey percussion cause a tribal atmosphere à la The Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Dandy Warhols. Mind-bending and dream-triggering. As always.
Orchestrator Robert Smith about
their supreme new opus.
TUTV: In the past 16 years Robert Smith lost his mother, father, and brother.
All these painful events led to this extraordinarily touching record. It’s one
long, emotionally layered lament that works liberating in the end.
Strong sentiments of heartache, grief, and sadness are omnipresent, but you
hear and feel frequently that Smith has accepted humankind’s inevitable destiny.
Live and die. Life and death.
Sonically, it feels like if you’re part of a funeral march that progresses in slow
motion. Almost every song starts with a long instrumental intro of waves of
mourning synths and weeping guitars, and every time when Smith‘s feverish
voice joins in, the sense of tristesse augments wondrously heavy-hearted.
5-star masterpiece!
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. Instagram – All Albums
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TUTV: Musically, tattoo artist Carter and his accomplices have left their angry punk days behind them and moved closer to classic rock on this surprising and bold longplayer.
And it’s a truly staggering result with several melodramatic power ballads that generate goosebumps, and some stoner rock ebullitions to keep balance. Carter sings his heart out with monumental vivaciousness. A vocal tour de force throughout, dealing with up and down emotions.
Lias Saoudi (voice/face/wordsmith/poet/writer): ‘Forgiveness Is Yours,’ is about life as eternal contingency… about no longer suspecting, but knowing that this shit will never get any easier… in fact, it’s about to get a whole lot worse, your body’s going to go into decay and the people you love will slowly start dropping dead around you… but somehow, you’ve smashed enough
of your expectations thus far in life, you’re sort of fine with it… you accept it.The overarching aesthetic themes at work here are torpor and further torpor still.”
TUTV: Without a shadow of a doubt their most startling, and most creative/inventive accomplishment. Sounds like FWF have written/recorded the bone-chilling soundtrack
for an entertaining Doomsday party. Enigmatic reflections, dark deliberations, distressing vibes, a John Lennon tribute and Saoudi as the foreboding messenger and sinister poet in the middle of it all. It’s the end of the world, as we know it, and it feels like Fat White Family.
Cave: “There’s no fucking around with this record. When it hits, it hits. It lifts you. It moves
you. I love that about it. I hope the album has the effect on listeners that it’s had on me. It bursts out of the speaker, and I get swept up with it.”
TUTV: Cave is the God of cloak-and-dagger balladry. Now here’s a God I can believe in. Again he shows why he’s one of the best ever crooners in the universe. And lyrically it
feels as if, after so many devastating, heart-crushing years, with the loss of two sons,
he lets sparks of light back in his life. God bless Nick Cave.
TUTV: White returns to his punk blues roots of the early days. Swipe after swipe,
blue stripe after blue stripe, kick after kick, clap after clap. A total of 13 thunder
strokes. High-wired electricity. Dope stuff.
TUTV: The charismatic Lia Metcalfe‘s singular voice, both anxious and bewitching,
is all over this new, awe-inspiring full-length. Overall the sound is even more gloomy
and spine-chilling than on their debut from 2022.
It fits Metcalfe‘s introspective reflections on her turbulent past terrifically well.
They’re embedded in arresting songs that send shivers down your spine.
But, eventually, there’s a light shining
at the end of the Mysterines tunnel.
One that illuminates their future
and your stereo.
TUTV: The star duo made an album with lots of bright pop tunes and some blues light
ones. The licks/riffs and hooks – about a thousand – haven’t that BK’s raw and rough edge as we are used to, but I don’t miss it whatsoever.
The overall sonority leans more towards power guitar pop (slow, mid-tempo and only
a couple of fast ones). I never thought that the tandem would come up after 23 (!) years with a pretty different sounding, coherent longplayer, without ignoring their blues roots that is. I played Ohio Players more than their whole catalog together. Say no more.
TUTV: The three main elements that make this album special are Jeen’s remarkable
voice, her high-quality songwriting expertise, and the heart-and-soul passion that streams throughout it. Whether Jeen rocks out, muses, or swings moods, she always holds your aural attention.
TUTV: With Interplay their shoegaze past goes into the dustbin. Ride came up here
with a multi-layered pop LP stuffed with arousing tunes, alternated with pepped-up reveries.
All songs are sublimely orchestrated and bathe in a psychedelic jacuzzi,
while vocalist Mark Gardner‘s velvet vocals match the radiant atmosphere
exquisitely. It’s a new ride, and it’s a gratifying one.
TUTV: This first Mancunian collabortion sounds as if was made about 30 years ago.
Most tunes could be leftovers from The Stone Roses‘ 2nd and final 1994 LP Second Coming, the one on which Squire played his guitar exactly the way Jimmy Page did in Led Zeppelin for years. And Liam is Liam. Arms together on his back and letting his pipes do the talking. The two heroes just did what they wanted to do, making an album together and having fun doing it.
Before I was aware of it I had played the album about 10 times in 2 days.
Mind you this is not a masterwork whatsoever, but all 10 tunes are top-entertaining
and stick faster than I can say “I want the Stone Roses support Oasis on their reunion tour”?
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. Liam Gallagher – John Squire
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TUTV: The Other Side is a concept record about a “mysterious couple” having
adventures in an otherworldly America. The by-now 76-year-old Burnett translates
their journey in lovey-dovey lullabies, heartfelt musings, and amourus ballads.
This is the perfect record for daydreaming and relaxation. Soft, mellow, and tender.
His slightly hoarse Americana voice enchants and entices all through this sepia-colored album. Pure romanticism. Pure songsmith.
Artist: JUJU (Italy)
Brainchild of Sicilian multi-instrumentalist
and producer Gioele Valenti. Album: Apocalypse Is God’s Spoiler
Photo by Turn Up The Volume
TUTV: Valenti is a jam champ and a groove master creating electrifying, trance-like vibrations that transfer you to the dark side of your mind where you can freely
fantasize and explore your own psyche.
Circling Krautrock-like psychedelia is all over the place. Choir chants and spacey percussion cause a tribal atmosphere à la The Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Dandy Warhols. Mind-bending and dream-triggering. As always.
TUTV: After the turmoil, chaos and drugs addictions (especially Doherty) of the early
years, the side-projects, solo records and getting clean and healthy the Libs are back, again. They’re not the boys in the band of yesteryear, they’re now grown-up men who
enjoy a stable life and still are obsessed by making music.
They became notable, experienced musicians who left their hedonistic lifestyle behind themselves for several years now. Not one dull moment, not one dull song on the eastern esplanade.
TUTV: The Irishmen have become first-class songwriters (which they already proved on previous LP Skinty Fia– – still my favourite one). Frontman Grian Chatten‘s lyrics show (again) his observative view on this modern-day, confused world and how it affects
his inner-self.
This is not their masterpiece yet to my ears, but it’s only a matter of
time that they will come up with a longplayer that will blow us all away.
Turn Up The Volume: Old skool punk ‘n’ roll? Absolutely. Any good? You betcha! Amyl and her loud buddies made another roasting riff-manic-monster of a hell fucking
hell yeah record. Pogo madness is back. Sturm un drang from start to finish. HOLY MOLY!
Band:THE SMILE
Sort of supergroup featuring 2 radioheads, Thom
Yorke and Jonny Greenwood and drummer Tom Skinner.
Album: Cutouts.
Their 3rd LP in just 2 years
(Radiohead 8 in 31 years).
TUTV: By far their best to my ears. On the previous 2 ones they tried too hard
to not sound like Radiohead (which they did frequently anyway) and did it with
too many redundant orchestrations, too many unnecessary layers and a bit of
arty farty structures here and there.
Mind you these are good LPs but on this one they keep it far more simple resulting
in 10 very compelling pieces of mesmerizing music. Trippy fast ones alternate with slow
musing ones and throughout the arrangements are subtle, direct and most entertaining with Thom Yorke sounding, yes, at ease, not forcing his compassionate voice/vocals. Bingo.
TUTV: Nostalgia is the keyword all over this fully devoted record. As we already know
for a long time Hawley is a romantic at heart who’s in love with his city Sheffield since
he was a child. It’s more than just his hometown.
It’s the place where he experienced all things good and bad, happy and sad. It leads
to yearning renumerations, fanciful daydreams and wistful meditations. With his soft-heartened voice and late-night stories, the late great Roy Orbison comes to mind on
several occasions.
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Artists:DEAD ANYWAY British duo combining the dark lyricism of Kate Arnold
against the music and soundscapes of Marc Symonds. Album: Tough, Listen
TUYV: Slow/mid-tempo/fast trip-hop tunes are wrapped in layers of
distortion and feedback, creating an eerie and at times sinister ambiance.
Massive Attack, Tricky, Arab Strap and Mike Skinner’s The Streets
and Laurie Anderson‘s latest opus Amelia come to mind.
DA resonates as EBM for people who come alive when the darkness sets in, far away
from our 24/7 suffocating life and the world’s destructive nature as we experience now, again.
Kate Arnold‘s spoken word stories evolve on waves of chilling synth soundscapes that actually ease one’s confused mind (mine, for sure) and transfer you to your space of imaginativeness. Trance massage it is. You’ll feel alive anyway.
“The singular mixture of classic punk/hardcore and electronic styles result in 12 frantic tracks of postmodern pop for the genreless future. Painted with a broad pallet of only the most extreme hues of emotion, each track is marked by a distinctive danceable mania.”
TUTV: Let your head kicked in with schizophrenic disco sledgehammers for illegal raves in batcaves where dropouts, misfits, loners, eccentrics, bohos, and other related outsiders gather to move in mysterious ways, far away from the normal world.
TUTV: It’s vintage Shellac/Steve Albini with its wayward song structures, its
capricious and minimalistic approach, its broken riffs, edgy hooks, sinewy
drumming, Albini‘s firm vocals and the raw and rough post-punk dynamics.
Absolutely weird to listen to, knowing
that the noise wizard is here no more.
He passed away on May 7, following a heart attack.
Only 10 days before the album release. Sad loss.
JUJU is the musical vehicle and band of Sicilian multi-instrumentalist/singer-songwriter and producer GIOELE VALENTI. He is also the man behind Herself, a folktronica project that involved the likes of Mercury Rev‘s frontman Jonathan Donahue, John Fallon of The Steppes and Amaury Cambuzat of Faust and Ulan Bator.
On March 15 JUJU release their new, 4th album, titled APOCALYPSE IS GOD’S SPOILER (kooky title, I love it). It will only be available on vinyl and digitally. Pre-order info HERE.
It’ll feature two exceptional guests: Chad Channing who was the first drummer of
grunge icons Nirvana and Luca Giovanardi from Italian psych combo Julie’s Haircut.
TUTV: First things first. I’m a longtime JUJU fan (Our Mother Was A Plant still is a classic space-psych album in my book), I saw them play live a couple of times and interviewed mastermind and gentleman Gioele Valenti last March after Juju‘s gig in my hometown of Ghent. So news of new JUJU music always make my greedy ears longing to hear it.
That said, let’s talk about the LP’s first taster. Cosmic Fall is a trance-inducing
psychedelic trip vibed-up with choir chants that create a gospel-like atmosphere
and a short rap injection near the end. The ongoing Krautrock percussion dynamics
are the bongoing backbone of this magnetizing jam, while crystalline guitar sparks
float around like glimmering stars in the sky. Mind-pleasing, dream-triggering, and
mood-elevating as always. Bring on the album.
It’s PART 6 of Turn Up The Volume‘s yearly hot summer playlists.
A mix of new and old tunes. A mix of adrenalin-infused punk/rock
anthems, dance fireworks, and some moony musings to end the
party when the sun comes up.
Italian singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalistGIOELE VALENTI is a busy musical bee. He’s the mastermind of spellbinding psych acts JUJU and HERSELF and he regularly works with fellow Italian artist Nicola Sanguin of Lay Llamas. He also toured and recorded with the wonderful duo Jonathan Donahue/Grasshopper of the supreme band Mercury Rev recently.
A couple of weeks ago JUJU played my hometown of Ghent (Belgium) again and we had
a chat focused on his newest album made withLay Llamasand namedFlag Of Breeze.
But first, as usual, we start an interview with a slice of music. Here’s one of my
favorite Juju songs, it’s from the excellent 2nd LP Our Mother Was A Plant.
Hello Gieole,
great to meet you again
You operate under two different monikers: JUJU and HERSELF.
Why, Gioele? Different music and/or different musicians?
“I think that at the basis of my training there are such heterogeneous listenings,
from folk to post-punk, that I immediately found it necessary to split into several
artistic personalities.
Different sound perspectives for the same artistic identity. Call it, if you will, sonic schizophrenia or company of artistic sub-personalities. I’ve always made my records myself. Of course, live, both Herself and JUJU become a real band.”
Which track would you pick from your work – overall – to introduce
yourself to people who never heard of you ?
“I think a good synthesis of JUJU’s sound, we find it in the song We Spit On Yer Grave, from the debut album… you can find everything in it. From new wave to post-punk; from indie pop to shoegaze. It still sounds very good to my hyper-critical ears!”
New mini-album FLAG OF BREEZE is a collaborative one with Lay Llamas (Nicola Giunta) You worked with LL before. What connects you both?
“It’s a long story… rooted in twenty years, I think. Nicola and I met at the time of Herself‘s first records. Nicola came to one of my concerts, if I remember correct-ly, in my city. And we immediately became friends. Lay Llamas is a Nicola‘s idea, and when he started taking his first steps, he immediately involved me, more or less.
Our most nourished collaboration takes shape in the Ostro (Rocket Re-cordings) album. From time to time, we like to make a record together, like the latest Goud, or the Flag Of Breeze collaboration. Between me and Nicola, in addition to a long-standing friendship, there is an extraordinary artistic affinity. In the work of the Lay Llamas, a perfect chemistry is unleashed, which neither he nor I can explain on rational grounds. I think it’s “simply”
a kind of alchemy.”
Lay Llamas’ Nicola Sanguin
Are all songs created together, lyrically and sonically?
“Normally the work with LL takes happens in the following way. Nicola sends me a sonorous canvas, or a definite structure. I write the lyrics and record my vo-cals, some arrangements, guitars, and synthesizers and then he polishes everything to a strong, typically LL aesthetic. It often works like this… but it’s not a rule. Sometimes everything
is already clear enough. Other times, we have no idea where the songs will lead us.”
Are all tracks connected or does each one stands on its own?
“As for my writing part on Flag Of Breeze, in agreement with Nicola, there is a universalist inspiration, which I am not afraid to define as pacifist. the whole record is lavished by this utopia of brotherhood, which is not mannerism, but a yearning pure, sincere. Fully aware that our world is falling apart under the yoke of truly negative powers.”
I like the artistic image on the album’s cover, although I have
no idea what it means? Is there a story behind, Gioele?
“The aesthetic part of the cover is totally Nicola‘s prerogative.
I can only tell that, yes, I like it!”
Which movie would be perfect to have your music as its soundtrack?
“A film whose story is written by Tom Robbins and whose photography is han-dled by John Alcott! Naturally, I would see Lucifer directing, the most misunder-stood angel of all!”
Painting by Alexandre Cabanel named ‘Ange Dechu’ (The Fallen Angel) in 1847
If you could collaborate on a new record with
a big name artist, who would it be and why?
“You know, I feel like a craftsman. I even have a hard time thinking of myself with a “big” name. There are so many artists that I love… I think with Mike Scott of the Waterboys. I loved them so much that I sanded my heart. Simply, because they are a part of me.”
I know you like to play live, so the lockdown years must have been
a pain in the ass. How did you cope with that Covid-19 period?
“Yes, that was a very painful time. As for everyone, by the way.
I think JUJU is a machine that express itself at his best in live dimension.
Yes, I really missed the live dimension. But I’m a fatalist, and I think everything
happens for a reason. And here we are again.”
A couple of weeks you played in my hometown of Ghent in Belgium again.
It looked/sounded as if you and the band were happy to be back on stage
despite car problems the day before.
“Sure, man. We were coming off a date in Bordeaux and were on our way to Beaumont.
We had this bad, but not serious, accident. We missed a date. But we caught up with Ghent. A city that we love and have played many times.
We were happy to play this concert organized by Sven Van Daele. Sven is a fan and a great person. We are always very happy to play in Belgium. A place where we feel at home.
March 9 – Ghent, Belgium – photo by TUTV
Any plans to work or tour with Mercury Rev again?
“Oh man. Yes I’d really like. We catch up with Jonathan: (note: Jonathan Donahue
is Mercury’s Rev charismatic singer/frontman) from time to time, like old friends.
They are extraordinary artists and very special human be-ings. Maybe…”
Gioele’s Herself project feat. Jonathan Donahue
What’s the next step for Gioele Valenti
and his different projects/collaborations?
“There’s something brewing… but I’m not the type to open
my mouth before things are done. Fingers crossed.”
Buy/stream FLAG OF BREEZE
here via Bandcamp.
. Thank you Gioele for this interview.
May the road rise with Juju/Herself.
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…
