JuJu is Gioele Valenti, Lay Llamas collaborator and musical alter ego behind Herself.

JuJu is his current vehicle, highlighting a chapter in the, “on-going exodus from Africa that more often than not ends in ignored tragedies at sea”.

Through the medium of music, JuJu the artist achieves his stated goal, “to turn that defeat into a celebration”. A theme which is beautifully expressed with the artwork inclusion of Géricault’s ‘Study of a Model’, an inspiration for his masterpiece, and long time favourite of mine, ‘The Raft of the Medusa’.

“Sons of the Void is the latest project from David Max, former bassist/songwriter with Hoboken/NYC psych rockers Tadpoles. Following his tenure with Tadpoles, David emigrated to Switzerland and began a 5-year stint as guitarist/songwriter in Genesis P-Orridge’s psych-futurist collective Psychic TV. David has also worked alongside many pioneers of drone, dream and psych over the years, including Sonic Boom and Gibby Haynes. After meeting Nick Nobody, David struck out on his own with ‘Simple Psychedelic Pleasures.’ A band was assembled to tour ‘SSP,’ and shortly after a new crop of songs began to take shape. After establishing their own studio, Logical Magic Recordings in Basel, David and Nick took those songs to the next logical step: the debut album of Sons of the Void.” So says the comprehensivly succinct  press release, courtesy of Kevin McFadin, under the ever watchful, third eye of Sunrise Ocean Bender Records.

Daniel Westerlund aka The Goner aka E Gone, recently beseeched that we, “stick it to the powers that be”, with the announcement of E Gone’s follow up to last years landmark, (in every sense of the word), ‘All The Suns Of The Earth‘ LP.

“Being the second part of a loosely knit trilogy – ‘Advice To Hill Walkers’ – offers useful advice before and/or while partaking in any form of mountaineering”.

Can it truly be stated that E Gone is back, when ‘Advice To Hill Walkers’, infers that his temporal, inter-dimensional travels find him in a constant state of aeonic flux. The here or there, perhaps is nothing more than a transportive wormhole, an Escher frame of reference.

In an effort to maintain a balanced sense of perspective, it is necessary to flambé ones objective juices, to periodically take a trip outside of what is often mistakenly referred to as your, “comfort zone”.

United Bible Studies‘ latest release, ‘So As To Preserve The Mystery’, could be construed as one such foray.

I have the utmost respect for Kevin McFadin and the truly eclectic output of his Sunrise Ocean Bender Record Label. Through this Kevin, I found myself transported to the Appalachian backwood mists, and the work of the equally idiosyncratic Kevin Moist, founding member of the band Evening Fires and the Deep Water Acres Record Label kingpin.

Time flies when you’re having fun…

It seems like only yesterday that I was reviewing the Dead Sea Apes‘ majestic 2014 offering, ‘High Evolutionary’.

Suffice to say that with ‘Spectral Domain’ they have surpassed themselves yet again, literally transcending beyond, revelling in their self-styled incorporeal dominion.

These fabled Dead Sea dwellers, allegedly transformed into Apes for turning a deaf ear to “God’s message”, can perhaps best be summed up in Carlyle’s metaphor as, “describing people in modern times to whom the universe, with all its serious voices, seems to have become a weariness and a humbug”. (Wikipedia). In that respect I am somewhat astonished that the Dead Sea Apes’ followers are as yet not numbered in their legions, give it time…