Frenchman Chris Joss is a self-taught multi-instrumentalist and autonomous studio producer. Having lived in London for most of the 90's, Joss digested the vibrant music scenes of the city while working as a sound engineer and playing bass and guitar in various bands. Since then he's recorded a slew of records on his own, recorded a version of the Superman theme song and been remixed by a host of talent from around the world. This year, he's released his fifth album, Sticks, on the ESL label.
Influenced by his travels and experiences Joss sounds as if he's taken the sounds of 60's Swingin' London and dropped them in the middle of the Asian sub-continent. Sticks as a result sounds as if it were the soundtrack to some sort of spy movie in Thailand or India. With sitars, tablas, trippy guitars, strange beats, funky organs, and wavy basslines it's like Joss had been lost in New Delhi for the last two years (or forty) and then warped all that he heard into some sort of a jazzy concoction for western ears.
That being said, Sticks is a groovy and oh so good record. It's space age bachelor pad music that's tripped out and hooked on some strange guru that's going to take you to a higher plane of existence. Yeah baby! From the psychedelic groove of, "Little Nature," to the sweaty moodiness and mystery of, "Night Scare," this is the best album of exotica never recorded. I've listened to Sticks about four times now in a row and I don't seem to be able to remove this disc from the player because of it's ability to hypnotize and and rush you away to another time and place...If that's not a recommendation, then I don't know what is. Groovy baby. Groovy escapism at its best!
No comments:
Post a Comment