Ju Ju Fabulous- Now, Give me back that Goat
(Gateway Music JJFC002)
Ju Ju Fabulous- Now, Give me back that Goat
(Gateway Music JJFC002)
From Aural Innovations #40 (Sept 2008)
I have never heard of this Danish band but there is some pretty cool stuff on this CD. The band is drums, bass, guitar, trumpet, saxophones, Rhodes and Hammond and an interesting singer or speaker. The music is quite strange, a bit like Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart at times but then too mainstream at other times. It is a bit unsure of what it wants to be. The CD comes in a really nice thick digpack layout with a lyric book for the half of the non-instrumental tracks. After a strange little intro the CD kicks off with Little Inferno, which features a quite heavy guitar at times and almost goes ska, but not quite, and features a lot of horns and strange lyrics. It is hard to describe this stuff. Honey Cone Landing Zone starts off instrumental and quite spacey but then becomes something totally different and has a ripping guitar solo at the end. Dusty Butt is next and features a cool Hammond organ, strange lyrics and a slow heavy groove to start, and then everything changes and it becomes a bit more mainstream, but not really. The band really get to play in this 6 minute track as well. Very good musicians. Herbs and Gravel is a short 1 minute piece of weirdness before Gaucho Blues. This is really funky track and a special track. Travel Gravel is next and features some ripping guitar work in this fast paced track. Up in the Mountains is a 7 minute track that starts slow and spacey with some nice sax playing. This track really reminded me of Frank Zappa from the 1980-1982 era. Freedom Come features some slide guitar to start off and some female vocals as well. Some down and dirty bass playing is highlighted in this track as well as the horns. Streets of Bacchus is a short strange thing to bridge to the next track, the Bacchus Beat. This is a quite uptempo funky-jazzy thing. The CD ends with the 7 minute Sacrificing The White Bull. It starts quite mellow with some female voice and flute and nice lead guitar. Later it turns into an upbeat jam with djembe, guitar and other instruments all jamming away. Cool stuff. Great new Danish band.
You can find more information from the band's web site at: http://www.myspace.com/jujufabulous
Reviewed by Scott Heller