Taking their name from ‘jouissance’, the French word for ‘high enjoyment’, Jouis are five graduates from Brighton’s Institute Of Modern Music and their music ebbs and flows between jazz, folk, psychedelia and prog.
“Their sounds,” we’re told, “are designed to open your mind and spirit you away to new lucid dimensions.” There’s a lazy, jazzy ambience throughout, even when the lyrics hint at the perils of consumerism (Hyperception) or eco decay (Misty Maker Stomp). With two EPs and a seven-inch single under their belts, the festival favourites enlisted the help of producer Phill Brown (Bob Marley, Led Zeppelin) to record their debut album live to tape. Opener _All That Is And Is One _sets the gently trippy tone, all liquid guitar and sun-dappled shimmer, switching halfway to a more urgent jazz-rock surge with shades of Santana. There are portents of doom amid the hippie, beatific mood on Rain, but it’s the music, not the lyrics, that triumph. Prog fans will especially enjoy the keyboard arpeggio-fest on Universal Goggles. ‘Comfortably drifting along with the tide,’ they swoon on Misty Maker Stomp. That’s the album’s vibe conjured right there.
