Juha
The Grooms of God
© 2007 Juha/Jaffa Orange Station (620953325526)
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Like a three-headed gargoyle perched on the steps of Motown, Juha makes "Gothic Soul" - a fusion of hip hop, soul, gothic, and world music. Imagine Marvin Gaye, Vincent Price, and Eartha Kitt harmonizing in a Middle Eastern market.
tracks
- 1 Bloodball
- 2 Four Black Dogs
- 3 Akhar Virgin
- 4 The Gargoyle
- 5 PSA: a Pubic Service Message From Juha
- 6 Ain't Nothin Goin On but the Rent
- 7 Dip Dip
- 8 Paul in Swan Lake
- 9 Can the Bengal Bend All Day
- 10 My Love Will Never Die
- 11 Weasel (A Begging Brother in Line)
- 12 Full Grown (Satyrn Returns)
- 13 Tetrodotoxin
- 14 Four Black Dub
- 15 We Become the Men We Hated
- 16 You May Now Kiss God
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JUHA starring in The Grooms of God...
"Try to peg down Juha... and you'll likely be so far left field or right field or not even in a field at all. If anything, Juha is the brilliant corsage bobbing in the junk-strewn waters of hip hop." - Good Times | Santa Cruz
Like a three-headed gargoyle perched on the steps of Motown, Juha’s blend of hip hop, soul, gothic and world music is the backdrop for the choir that dwells in his vocal chords.
'The Grooms of God' is Juha's new album, with thirteen original songs as well as remakes of work by Willie Dixon, Tchaikovsky, and Gwen "Ain't Nothin' Goin On But The Rent" Guthrie. It comes with a 20-page, full-color booklet.
Loosely, it's a concept album; each song represents a different archetype of men who were or are outcast by society - the madman, the lover, the runaway, and the whore, among others. It opens with a sample of Thich Nhat Hahn saying, "No discrimination against the garbage in favor of the rose" - a sentence which sums up the heart of 'The Grooms of God': that categories of saint and sinner are in the eye of the beholder, and that we're each equally essential to the world.
Juha's cocky raps still make appearances on the album(most of which curiously reference his dick at least once per song), but 'The Grooms of God' leans towards what Juha calls "Gothic Soul" - harmony-rich vocals which tread into minor keys. There's also some ass-shakin' Middle Eastern dance music in the mix, some electro-classical, and a thread of reggae vibe, too.
When it sounds like 100 people are singing his backup vocals, it's actually all him - one of his favorite things to do is to layer his voice on top of his voice, because he loves the sound of community but is too much of a hermit to take part in community. He's also pretty self-centered, so "little vocal armies of me" suit his fancy quite well.
Recent reviews of the album:
"What a gift! Juha is a brilliant little genius. There is no one quite like him."
- Marc Almond
"Queer dub. Butlerian dancehall stomp. Bengal barbershop. Hybrid forms you didn't know were missing, didn't know were possible, a world music not of smash and grab or cut and paste but of warp and weft. Newly transplanted to London, needed like a fresh kidney, uha brings his extravagantly gonzo taken on hip-hop to clubland, right, NOW."
- Plan B Magazine
Take the soul of Prince, the mercurial energy of Eminem, the electro-noisiness of Xiu Xiu, and the Gothic complexity of The Arcade Fire… and you can start to imagine Juha's newest album, The Grooms of God. It's all that and a lot of bass. The generally hyper-sexual lyrics soar in both imagery and cadence, celebrating the sexual, the animalic, the ignoble, the transgressive.... While the tracks display a large diversity of talent on Juha's part, the choice of a Gothic aesthetic and the maintenance of it adds to the weight of the already heavy message…. Oh, and the soul! Far from cold and detached, Juha's roughness of voice and non-traditional vocal style make the often abstract message intimate and urgent... "Ain't Nothin Goin on but the Rent" is a Gwen Guthrie cover whose bluesy beat, repeated keyboard loop high in the mix, and prostitution references make it sound like it was coming straight from Madonna's Erotica album. And "Paul in Swan Lake" is a simply breath-taking recounting of an old lover lost to AIDS set over the theme from Tchaichovsky's 'Death of a Swan.' ...While marketed as 'hip-hop' and 'soul,' it seems reductive to place this album in any genre box… I could see The Grooms of God causing hipsters in Minneapolis to jam while listening to it on their off-brand mp3 players, Californian hip hop fans from across that genre's spectrum to become engaged in this album's lyrical content, and queeny Parisian intellectuals to dance in their underwear (actually did see that one last week)… This album is awesome and essential.
- The Bilerico Project
Juha has reemerged with an even more sprawling, dense, and kaleidoscopic take on many of the themes explored in his debut recording, Polari. This time around, he’s further explored and extrapolated the sonics of his ‘gothic soul’ stylings…. Deeply personal while remaining musically and lyrically accessible, The Grooms of God rather bravely maps out an immediate call to self-love… subverting a patriarchal God-as-father theology through race allegory, feminist homage, and overt homoeroticism. The Christian church, dance clubs, mosques and men’s bathrooms all serve as interchangeable backdrops for the stories, which are delivered through a pitch-shifting, androgynous baritone that recalls Sarah Vaughan and Grace Jones. Whether through the Quranic imagery of the slinking, burbling “Akhar Virgin” or the cleverly minimalist cover of Gwen Guthrie’s “Ain’t Nothin Goin On But The Rent,” he skillfully manages to keep it light when the concepts get heavy. Self-seriousness is often the undoing of many a project as ambitious as Grooms; hearing Juha rap “I am: the bridge between ghetto and high falootin/between Huey Lewis and Huey Newton” makes it clear that he wants the listener in on the jokes as well along the journey. By the last track of the album, it feels like just the beginning.
- Colorlines
Some History...
Taking his name from a trickster of Arabic folklore, Juha released the 'Polari' album on hardcore upstart Agitprop! Records in 2002, fusing elements of Middle Eastern, Hawai'ian, and punk music over a hip hop back-drop. At the time, 'Polari' was conceived of as a band venture; a revamped, solo-ized, and remastered version - to be called Polari [the Full Harva Edition] - will be released in 2008.
Juha's musical undertakings began when, as a child in the dawn of hip hop, he would create primitive remixes on his parents stereo. The first was a mix of his Ma's 'How To Cha Cha Cha' instructional record with Salt N Pepa's "Push It." Over time, his creations became a bit more twisted, as a radio interview with a teenaged cannibal floated over Boy George's lament, "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?"
Told early on that he'd "never make it as a singer" - which was discouraging to him, as it was all he wanted to do, and his journals over-flowed with songs - he decided to pursue the much more practical career choice of becoming a performance artist. A large portion of his solo works at the time addressed the AIDS crisis, and were heavily influenced by the radical tactics of the activist collective ACT UP. Juha went on to receive a Fellowship in New Genres from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, a Threshold Grant through Hampshire College, a residency from the Jon Sims Center for the Performing Arts, and a grant from the Horizons Foundation. 'Orange,' a touring medicine show done in collaboration with the artist Ghalib, brought him back to his musical roots, which led to later tours across the United States and in Europe.
And now there's 'The Grooms of God.' You're invited to the wedding.
PS - "Juha" is a name that's difficult for many Westerners to pronounce. Wanna try? Combine a French "Je" (as in "Je voudrais coucher avec toi, Juha") and then a "ha" (as in "Ha ha ha - My, but that's rich!"). That's a decent approximation. Your pronounciation is not totally accurate at this point, but you're pretty damn close!