Junko Beat
Satirifunk
Dumparade Records
Junco Beat is the trippy funk dream conjured by drummer Chris Lacinack and friends. The band has been kicking around the Crescent City since 2012, playing Frenchman Street clubs and the many music festivals in the region. Saririfunk is not full of high-energy jams to keep you dancing all night. Their sound is better suited to long, blissed out nights at a hip Kava bar. Lacinack and his revolving cast of collaborators draw heavily on trance, Eastern ragas, Kraftwerk, chamber music and Radiohead.
Satirifunk opens with a robo-funk groove, echo laden guitar chords and distorted vocal swimming in the mix. The song is a meditation on power dynamics. Jane Brody asks, “Do you think you want to own me with all of your money?” A male voice run through some otherworldly effects keeps popping up saying just one word, “Control.” A few songs later, Jane gives a recitation about psychedelics over a minimalist groove accented by foghorn-like cello drones. Snap your fingers with the spirit of Mr. Ferlinghetti’s.
Four of the albums seven songs are instrumentals. I think this is where the record really shines. Lacinack uses a diverse arsenal of sounds to weave his dreamscapes. Will Snowden’s cello provides the melodic hooks on “After Burn” and “March 1827.” Dave Easly’s pedal steel guitar provides the faux sitar on “Lotus Rising.” It’s a song conjuring hallucinations of caravan sarai on the Silk Road. “The Land of Milk and Honey” closes the record with another atmospheric jam with Middle Eastern overtones.
We all need an escape from reality every now and then. Satirifunk can take you on a sound voyage while you tune out the news of the day.
