“What a gift! Juha is a brilliant little genius. There is no one quite like him.
”
—
Marc Almond
“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. It's all that and a lot of bass… a tightly-knit, complex, and highly analytic album with a roughness, honesty, and immediacy that makes it an essential listen. The generally hyper-sexual lyrics soar in both imagery and cadence.... Oh, and the soul! Juha's roughness of voice and non-traditional vocal style make the often abstract messages intimate and urgent… 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." The main strength of this album is the diversity of the tracks. While marketed as hip hop and soul, it seems reductive to place this album in any genre box. Awesome and essential.”
—
Alex Blaze, Bilerico Project
“Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Like G. Love, Juha is all over the place stylistically and refuses to confine himself to one genre. For all his quirkiness, he maintains a strong sense of groove, and that yields infectious results on funky originals such as “The Gargoyle,” “Akhar Virgin” and “Dip Dip.” Juha also lets the funk flow on an unlikely remake of the late Gwen Guthrie’s 1986 hit “Ain’t Nothin Goin On But the Rent,” successfully puts a reggae spin on bluesman Willie Dixon’s “My Love Will Never Die,” and on “Paul in Swan Lake” even draws on Euro-classical music; uniting Tchaikovsky with a funk/hip-hop beat might have been a train wreck coming from someone else, but Juha makes them sound like a perfectly natural combination. Juha can be self-indulgent, but because he has so many interesting ideas, one can easily live with that self-indulgence, or even appreciate it. Juha takes plenty of chances on The Grooms of God, and they pay off for him in a major way.”
—
Alex Henderson, Music Journalist (Billboard, SPIN, AMG)
“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
“Juha has reemerged with an even more sprawling, dense, and kaleidoscopic take on many of the themes explored in his classic 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 subverts 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. 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, it feels like just the beginning.”
—
Juba Kalamka, Colorlines
“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
“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
“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
“A sprawling, rollicking, giddily theatrical and complicated tapestry of words, sounds and ideas... an intensely complicated conversation. A bit of everything gets covered here, from dialogues on misogyny and sexism among the "revolutionary activist" hip-hop set ("Melt By Your Mouth") to the consequence of militarily and religiously influenced closets (the scathing traditional cover, "Iko Iko Phalastini"). Recorded in Maui, Hawai'i, the island's post-colonial history serves as a backdrop for a number of tracks, most notably the deceptively sing-songy lament "Hawai'ian Love Song" ("Hawai'i/The lovers the dreamers and Elvis so blue/ pineapples are native/the labor is too.") Well-placed live instrumentation and tight vocal arrangements allow the musical backdrops to do justice to the density of their lyricism. ”
—
Juba Kalamka, Colorlines
“Juha is a name you're going to be hearing a lot... 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, Polari. Juha is shockingly good. ”
—
Joseph 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 hop's 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 fingernails, speculating on the state of hiphop; I don't so much worry as long as groups like Juha "just don't give a fuck" (a central tenet of vital hiphop) and thrive on the fringe of hip hop culture. ”
—
The Portland Mercury
Start rabbit hole mode on I Was Totally Destroying It's profile page and we'll play one of their songs.
When that song finishes we might play a song by Hammer No More The Fingers, an artist I Was Totally Destroying It has recommended.
When that song finished we might play a song by Organos, an artist Hammer No More The Fingers is about to play a show with.
Stay in Rabbit Hole mode and see how far down it goes. We'll keep playing music based off the previous song.
Song Plays
450
+16
Comments
One of the most creative artist' I've had the privelage of hearing from!
Feb 15