{"id":8785,"date":"2018-04-18T11:31:26","date_gmt":"2018-04-18T10:31:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/?p=8785"},"modified":"2018-04-18T11:39:24","modified_gmt":"2018-04-18T10:39:24","slug":"juju-psychic-lemon-leicester-soundhouse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/juju-psychic-lemon-leicester-soundhouse\/","title":{"rendered":"JuJu\/Psychic Lemon – Leicester Soundhouse"},"content":{"rendered":"
This entry is part 1 of 5 in the series Enjoy Yourself!<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Enjoy Yourself!<\/strong> love to get out on the road and are not averse to a bit of extreme gig-going but even so the mid-week challenge of Swanage to Leicester and back did at times seem slightly insane\u2026 however, we soon forgot about that once we\u2019d settled in the Soundhouse for a gig put together by a combination of two promoters; Magic Teapot and The Other Window.<\/p>\n

Psychic Lemon were the main support and their opening track \u2018Interstellar Fuzz Star\u2018 typifies their set; a thumping multi-layered psych rocker, with howls of distortion and frequent changes of tempo, that mutates into the dubby bass opening of \u2018Satori Disko\u2019 a slow-burning journey through a twisted psychedelic landscape.<\/p>\n

\u2018Hey Droog!\u2019 is another change of pace; an aggressive industrial barrage delivered with an armageddon like fury. I\u2019ve heard this band described \u2013 possibly by themselves \u2013 as space rock, but that doesn\u2019t cover the howling intensity of their sound. There are subtle touches in their music that you can pick up on their recorded material but tonight their live set is 5 tracks of monstrous ear battering dark psych which went down well with the Leicester crowd and which I expect to be seeing more of at psych fests and gigs around the country.<\/p>\n

JuJu is the creation of Italian multi-instrumentalist Gioele Valenti; he composes, plays, records and produces everything on his two albums to date \u2013 with last years \u2018Our Mother Was A Plant\u2019 following on from the previous year\u2019s self-titled debut, both available on Fuzz Club. For live appearances, he has a regular band of extremely good musicians who allow him to take his vision out on the road. They start their set, split fairly evenly between both their albums, with the marching, militant \u2018Samael\u2019 from their debut. It builds the tension, with a slight air of threat, before exploding into a psychotic, almost gospel chorus. This is followed by a total change in style; \u2018We Spit On Yer Grave\u2019, a beautiful, driving, triumphant masterpiece \u2013 uplifting waves of guitar providing the perfect prescription for a cold winter night with its infectious, spirit-nourishing grooviness! It\u2019s one of those \u2018hairs on the back of your neck\u2019 moments, pure inspiration that would make a corpse grin! If there was justice in the music world it would a global hit, the soundtrack to every perfect summer.<\/p>\n

\u2018Sunrise Ocean\u2019 has a dusty timeless feel; a head out on the highway, driving through the desert night roadhouse blues groove. It clatters along with a rumbling bass line, rock solid drum pattern and another of those angelic choruses, otherworldly and visionary. The band is a joy to watch, clearly immersed in their own sound and digging the music that they\u2019re creating. They don\u2019t even look like a band! You could pass them in the street and never guess that they could combine to produce such evocative sounds, this is music purely for the love of music, no trappings, no-nonsense.<\/p>\n