Sicilian psych-rock project rallies against the the thieving financial elite in new single and video
Sicily's JuJu is today sharing a new video for the incendiary ‘Motherfucker Core’, lifted from Gioele’s third album under the JuJu moniker ‘Maps and Territory’, released last year via Fuzz Club. A sprawling, full throttle psych-rock mission statement that clocks in at eight minutes, the song is a rally against the corrupt, thieving world of finance set to a driving motorik rhythm section, overblown guitars and enchanting vocals. You can watch the dark and surreal video, directed by Sergio Angot, below.
On the single, Gioele Valenti, the Palermo-based multi-instrumentalist behind JuJu, says: “‘Motherfucker Core’ talks about the banks and their robberies in our "modern" (but really medieval) world. According to the critical nature of the song, me and Sergio liked the idea of exploring the socially critical nature of the song through the concepts of the Big Pig (as a metaphor for the financial capitalist) and the Little Pig (representing the bureaucrats that work beneath them).”
Talking about the film, director Sergio Angot says: “I thought of this deliberately faceless person, who, at night on his return from work, wears this pig mask that enables him to enact certain weird rituals and games, ultimately pushing it, perhaps purposefully, a step too far. I wanted this character to be an anomalous type of loner. His detachment from society had to show up right at the beginning through his voyeuristic scrutiny of the fireworks and joy taking place outside his flat, which he cares nothing of and seeks to distance himself from.”
Sergio continues: “We wanted the Big Pig to be playing some sort of God figure, moving puppets around at his will, so I came up with the idea of a miniature reconstruction of my flat – a dingy shithole version of it that truly reflected the kind of sad pigsty the main character would thrive in – and having him move a miniature version of himself around the flat, mirroring and anticipating his own actions.”
Arriving following the genre-bending ‘Our Mother Was A Plant’ LP, JuJu's third album ‘Maps And Territory’ – which ‘Motherfucker Core’ is lifted from – reaffirms and at the same time transcends JuJu's unique formula. A blend of Neo-psychedelia and Mediterranean Folk, New Wave and African tribalism, the sound of Juju is deconstructed, reassembled and expanded, even bordering Jazz territories with the contribution of avant-garde composer and improviser Amy Denio. The album is out now on Fuzz Club and available to buy on vinyl here.
