JOXIFICATIONS

The first time I heard this album I immediately fell in love. Although prog folk is my favorite genre, most of the time prog folk bands do not quite do it for me. Hearing Jox's Joxifications was like the first time I heard Comus's First Utterance, Jan Dukes de Grey's Mice and Rats in the Loft, ISB's 5000 Spirits of the Onion, or Tea & Symphony's Asylum for the Musically Insane. Hold up, this album came out in 1981?!?! NO WAY! Anyway on to the music.

The music on Joxifications is very pleasant folk music with driving bass lines, wonderful french vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, flutes, and wonderful acid tinged synths. This is acid folk done right. The music flows like a river without meandering. All of the songs on this album are completely memorable and catchy, and you will find yourself singing these songs in your shower, car, and workplace. In fact, my girlfriend and I probably play this album at least once to twice a week in the car.

If you listen really carefully you can tell that Jox is very influenced by prog acts from the 70s. The production does not at all sound like it was made in the 80s, and the songwriting is very atypical from the era as well. You can even hear a bassline from Yes's Heart of the Sunrise on one of the tracks during a breakdown in the song. I can not recommend this album enough if you enjoy relaxing, flowing, catchy, sometimes rocking sometimes virtuistic prog folk music. If you like Guns and Butter, Gentle Giant, Curved Air, or french psych-folk in general, listen to this one immediately!! I give it 10/10 easy!

JOX sole release offers a hybrid of celtic and progressive styles with a sprinkling of 80s synthesizers. Names like TRI YANN and GRYPHON, the former especially on the vocal tracks and the latter on some of the more extended instrumentals, come readily to mind.

The ancient Breton sounds become more diffuse in the latter half of the album, coinciding with the complete disappearance of the vocals. That is when comparison's to GRYPHON's "Red Queen.." period can be made. Luckily, JOX is not as clinical sounding, but these longer pieces are conducive to much meandering on the part of musician and listener alike. In fact it is precisely the modernized keys that elevate an otherwise at times sleepy performance.

So for me, as a folkie lacking the fusion genotype, I lean heavily to the anterior half of the disk, courtly but not stuck up. The highlights are the opener, with its chansonnier meets piano bar jazz ambience and "Metig", a modernized traditional tune that exploits similarly strong arrangements. The rest is fair to good, but moves me only a little more than it did the record buying public in 1982.

Not yet released on CD, Jox is recommended if the light jazzy side of prog folk with an occasional celtic swirl is joxification enough for you, and you can find it.