Please note this is an old page and Fly Global Music has now moved. Please follow this link and search for the entry in the new site.

Reviewers are often criticised for retreating to lazy comparisons when describing new or hard to categorise bands. But in the case of Chris Joss that really is the only option available. His music blends so many different sounds and influences that in some ways simply listing them is the best way of trying to explain what it sounds like.

So, opening track ‘Magic Tubes’ sounds like The Bamboos, but with a bizarre French art-pop sample of meaningless vocal riffing laid over the top. ‘I Want Freedom’ takes Red Hot Chili Pepper guitars and mixes them with strings that could have come straight from classic era Inner City and acid bleeps which sound so familiar you wonder whether they’ve been lifted from a Fat Boy Slim Best Of.

‘Count The Daisies’ mixes flutes and sitar straight of a Lalo Schifrin soundtrack with a Lamb style blend of trip-hop and broken beats. ‘Jungle Dolls’ sounds like Adam and The Ants playing the theme tune to a 1970s Saturday night TV show, while ‘Fatality Strikes’ has horns that sound like they’re taken from a mid-90s Boo Radleys’ track and organs that could be straight off of Money Mark’s debut.

In most cases, trying to blend this many styles and influences would cross the line from eclectic to messy; from being influenced by other artists to ripping them off. But, somehow, Chris Joss pulls it off, and pulls it off rather well. In many ways the single act that Joss most resembles is The Go! Team, and he has their knack of giving his blend of soul, funk, house, hip hop and everything in between, a definite sense of humour, without ever drifting into the dreaded territory of ‘wacky’ music.

So who would like Teraphonic Overdubs by Chris Joss? Judging by the number of bands it resembles, just about anyone.

Links:
Chris Joss’ website
ESL