"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
Juha is pleased to announce that The Grooms of God are here...
To meet them, click on his image below:
iTunes carries The Grooms of God as a digital download, too... though we recommend the hard copy, as it comes with a 20 page, full-color booklet. Either way - Get with the Grooms.
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. On The Grooms Of God,tracks range from foreboding ballads to raps about pissing, along with remakes of works penned by Gwen Guthrie, Willie Dixon, and Tchaikovsky.
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, Juha brings his extravagantly gonzo take on hip-hop to clubland, right NOW." - Plan B Magazine/London
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 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
Juha also released the Polari album - originally a band venture - on hardcore upstart Agitprop! Records in 2002 (check out the reviews below, they're pretty fuckin brilliant). A revamped, solo-ized, and remastered version - which we call Polari [the Full Harva Edition] - will be released later this year. So get the old version while ya can:
Juha has received 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. He has toured the United States and Europe.
Taking the name Juha from the trickster of Arabic folklore, he has also been known by his emcee name, Jojoboy. Wanna pronounce Juha correctly? Try 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 good approximation - your pronounciation is not totally accurate at this point, but you're pretty damn close and much better at it than most English-speakers!
Yo DJs & Beatmakers! You can currently get a free download of STRILLER NIX, the a cappellas from the Full Harva Edition 'Polari.' Remix the hell out of em, will ya? And do peep into JUHA'S STICKY WEB.
Now go vegan.
REVIEWS of Juha's Polari
Fusing Eastern & Western music, theater and performance art rabble-rousing, Juha is a funky pie bursting at the seams with irresistible beats and attitude.
- Neva Chonin | San Francisco Chronicle (Critics' Picks)
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... one of the most intriguing imports in a very long time.
- Good Times | Santa Cruz
Juha's Polari is a brilliantly eclectic fusion. Juha is able to seamlessly walk the line between gaiety and gravity.
- Out Magazine
Juha blessedly defies simple categorization. In a world that allows Britney Spears to time-travel on behalf of Pepsi to become the reigning pop queen of every American generation, something this fresh and unexpected is a welcome treat.
- The Washington Blade
Juha whips samples, rhymes and beats into a sit-up-and-take-notice stew that the listener will want to devour...
- The Windy City Times | Chicago
Juha is a name you're going to be hearing a lot... you find the hard-core American hip hop character fully expressed... Juha is wickedly intelligent, with talent and intensity and - balls. Musically, Juha toys with the fringed edges where hip-hop is barely distinctly itself, not just bringing together but actually using and fusing an impossibly broad range of influences. Ready? No, you're not. Not for this. Juha braids together the causes and music and dreams of Hawai'i and Palestine and gay youth; the sensibilities of radical performance artists and sensitive musicians; and ties every knot so neatly at every crossing of the fibers that you see it all as a seamless whole, a single cause, a perhaps inexpressible but nonetheless whole idea. There is no compromise anywhere in the CD.... Juha is shockingly good.
- Joseph W. Bean | Out In Maui
Aptly named for the trickster in Islamic folklore, Juha leaves you guessing. Polari is a cotton-candy swirled concoction of Eastern and Western styles thrown forth like dice in an art-performance carnival atmosphere. Outspoken politically and all-over-the-map musically, Polari is one of the most interesting and satisfying albums we've heard in years.
- Outvoice
For all of hip hops thuggish wordplay and stances, there are those whose mission is to infuse the culture with new visions, rhymes and beats. Juha creates music that stretches the boundaries of hip hop. Polari is a exciting musical journey that says more on its 14 tracks than most hip hop artists do on their entire oeuvre.
- The Tablet | Seattle
People are always chewing their fingers, speculating on the state of hip hop; I don't so much worry as long as artists like Juha thrive on the fringe of hip hop cultures. - The Portland Mercury
