Juffage - Semicircle

Our review
Customer reviews
Press release

4...according to our Clinton on Fri 01 Jul, 2011.

This is the debut album from Chicago born Jeff T Smith, now residing in Leeds, UK, which is of course where we live too. I'd encountered him live one or two times, most memorably when I took my girlfriend (favourite band: Mumford and Sons, last gig: Lionel Richie) to see her first underground rock gig. There stood Juffage making an almighty squealing racket and as she covered her ears someone knocked a glass of wine over her. But it's in the sweaty lo-fidelity DIY scene Juffage has learned his trade and although the music is shot through with the noisy guitars and feedback drenched scree of many others, Juffage knows how to craft a tune amidst the debris. There is a cut and paste method of writing at play here which reminds me of the post cLOUDEAD movements of Subtle, Why? and Fog with scattershot drumming and adlibbed, edgy vocals. Not afraid to experiment with other textures there are ambient pieces, full on noise-outs and in 'Under Fanblades' something that sounds like this weeks fall guy Bon Iver cut into a billion pieces and stiched together at random. This album was recorded in various locations (inc. Albini's Electric Audio) over the last 6 years or so and the album has that kind of scattergun approach which generally pays off although final track 'Drone 2', featuring a horrible noise and cut up television shows, could be described as 'a waste of space'. Overall, a strong debut. This comes with a download code where you can get a digital version of the album plus a bonus remix EP, about which, despite my good association with Mr Google, I am unable to find which artists are involved.

Semicircle is the debut album of Juffage aka Jeff T. Smith, a solo sound artist and multi-instrumentalist from Leeds, via Chicago, Illinois. A recording enthusiast at heart, he has spent time in some of Chicago’s finest studios including Engine Studios (w/ Brian Deck), and Electrical Audio (w/ Steve Albini). Juffage's songs glisten with pop sensibilities couched in a patchwork of vocal harmonies, analogue synthesizers, cut-up samples and slow-moving melodies. This debut is a perfect distillation of what Juffage is all about – both defiantly experimental and unashamedly pop-oriented, with neither feature seeming out of place or at war with the other. A potent cocktail blending Radiohead’s lush pop sensibility, King Tubby’s manipulative production with Lightning Bolt’s rhythmic ferocity Recorded over a six year period in 22 different locations around the U.S.A. and U.K., ‘Semicircle’ is an ambitious record and a bold statement of the Juffage story so far. Out on vinyl with free download through Function Records (Maybeshewill, Shield Your Eyes, Cats Cats and Cats, Nitkowski). on 13th June. Juffage will be on tour in UK throughout May and early June. // “Crawling around amid a tangled mass of wires he leaps from one instrument to the next with the dexterity of a one-man Mogwai." Loud & Quiet // “Dreamy anti-folk with layers of distortion and feedback ... well and truly mind-blowing.” Clash Magazine // “Jeff T. Smith (a.k.a. Juffage) is changing the face of experimental music as we know it.” Toledo City Paper // “You don’t often find a solo artist as original as Chicago-born Juffage.” Vibrations Magazine //