Upcoming shows
JuJu is the brainchild of Sicilian multi-instrumentalist Gioele Valenti (Lay Llamas, Herself). Following on from the project’s 2016 S/T debut – widely hailed as one of the best, most innovative psych albums of the year – Valenti signed to Fuzz Club for the release of his sophomore LP ‘Our Mother Was A Plant’. Carrying on in its predecessor’s footsteps, the album is a continuation of JuJu’s ritualistic sonic exploration into the cultural implications of the ongoing refugee crisis and humanities increasingly strained relationship with Mother Earth.
Featuring guest appearances from Capra Informis (the masked djembe player in Goat), JuJu‘s second album was in September 2018 – the same day he was set to return to Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia. This is what Clash Magazine had to say: “[JuJu] matches Neu! type repetition to mind-blowing effects, gently re-organising the co-ordinates for psych-rock in the process… a lengthy, exotic piece that borders on tribal funk, it seems to exist entirely in a world of its own.”
Even more forward-thinking and adventurous than the self-titled debut, Our Mother Was A Plant summons all kinds of spirits with its rhythmic, otherworldly psychedelia – changing the game, once again. Calling it just a ‘psych’ record would be an injustice though, JuJu’s shamanic mantras are influenced just as much by afrobeat, funk, krautrock, art rock, drone, shoegaze and everything in between.