“Juha is a funky pie bursting at the seams with irresistible beats and attitude.”
- Neva Chonin, San Francisco Chronicle
"What a gift! Juha is a brilliant little genius. There is no one quite like him."
- Marc Almond
Juha starring in The Grooms of God
“I’ve become a three-headed gargoyle perched on the steps of Motown,” says Juha of his current incarnation. The Grooms of God, his latest release, is a concept album about men who move through the world as society’s outcasts: the madman, the runaway, the thief, and the whore, among others. It opens with a sample of Thich Nhat Hahn advising, "No discrimination against the garbage in favor of the rose" - a phrase which sums up its heart: that categories of saint and sinner are in the eye of the beholder. Musically, Juha's cocky raps still make appearances (most of which curiously reference his dick), but The Grooms of God leans more towards what he’s termed "Gothic Soul": harmony-rich vocals that dwell in minor keys. His trademark remains creating gospel choirs made up solely of himself, layering his voice upon his voice to form “little vocal armies of me.”
The Grooms of God features thirteen original songs, plus rewrites of work by Willie Dixon, Tchaikovsky, and Gwen “Ain’t Nothin Goin On But The Rent” Guthrie. In the process, Juha flirts with Middle Easter disco (“Akhar Virgin”), 80’s roller skating hip hop (“Dip Dip”), world fusion (the popular “Weasel”), and sounds pulled and fused from all over the globe. Themes range from the silly (- a Public Service Announcement for men about shaking thoroughly at the urinal to avoid dribble) to the cautionary (the a cappella “Can The Bengal Bend All Day,” a true tale of a man-eating tiger who stalks amidst humanity’s encroachment on nature) to the harrowing (“Paul In Swan Lake,” a personal reflection on the mid-90’s US AIDS Crisis set to a classical-electro beat).
Co-producer Th’ Mole says: “The Grooms of God speaks of a dark and painful past, but there is an almost gospel-like overtone of redemption and faith.” It is a mix of junkyard and treasure chest, a ruby rattling in a rusty beer can, arguing passionately for a sense of inner peace. And in the words of one critic: “It’s all that and a lot of bass.”
About Juha
In 2002, Juha’s Polari album was released by hardcore upstart Agitprop Records. Fusing elements of Middle Eastern, Hawaiian, and punk music over a hip hop back-drop, it garnered instant critical acclaim and scampered to #1 on the Outvoice album chart. Juha has received a Fellowship in New Genres from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, a Threshold Grant, a residency at the Jon Sims Center for the Performing Arts in San Francisco, and a grant from the Horizons Foundation.
On his ability to merge disparate sounds into a cohesive whole, Juha says: “If you’ve got multiple personalities, just make sure you put them all in your orchestra.” Juha’s take on his musical evolution: “I’m no spring chicken - now I’m full-grown cock.”
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
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