JUANTRIP
BALMY UNDER THE STORMY
ALBUM F COMMUNICATIONS, PLAYGROUND RELEASE:
MARCH 6, 2000 REVIEW: APRIL 11, 2000
Tracing the musical roots of French Juantrip aren't that hard. His debut album
is overflowed with an obvious passion for classic acts like Pink Floyd, The Beatles,
David Bowie and other late 60's and early 70's psychedelica. Being brought up
in a hippie commune this passion of course includes a very liberal attitude towards
drug-taking. But tripping with Juantrip isn't always that cool.
The album's kind of naive and rather blunt lyrics, similar to those of Swedish
national-hippie Di Leva, have never really been that fascinating to me. It's just
detached beyond relevance. The electronics involved are, in a funny way, charmingly
out-dated. Not retro in any usual sense, but at the same time everything but contemporary.
Or to put it another way: You get more of early 90's Shamen and less of late 90's
advanced post-electronic wizardry.
But somewhere, in the process of turning "Balmy under the Stormy" into an interesting
anachronism, dear Juantrip gets lost in his cosmic contemplation. It's hard to
say whether this is due to an obvious inferiority to his role models or the unfocused
structure of the album. But in any case, some rethinking is undoubtedly necessary
before releasing a second album.
