Julie's Haircut

2009 release ** De-luxe embossed and debossed sleeve. "Divided into two parts (Sermons and Liturgy), "Our Secret Ceremony" marks a point of no return in Julie's musical journey. Some might consider it pretentious, given its monstrous length, and to be objective, there are a couple of lengthy parts, but that's precisely where the beauty and the core of the record lie. Letting go without worrying too much about song structure or duration, playing what we like, how we like it. Take it or leave it. I've more than taken it; I've been "taken" by it. Generally speaking, Sermons contains the "normal" tracks, distinguished by excellent hypnotic rhythms à la NEU! ("The Shadow, Our Home", a great track, by the way), cavernous bass grooves ("The Devil In Kate Moss"), synthetic visions reminiscent of Blonde Redhead ("Mountain Tea Traders"). An honorable mention goes to the long trip for guitar, Wurlitzer, and other analog trinkets of "Origins", and to the wonderful "Mean Affair", caught between the "Funhouse"-like vibe (the song), and the free jazz flutter of organ and sax. Decidedly freer and more reflective is the liturgical part. A risky tribute to an old-fashioned way of doing psychedelia, entirely centered around keyboards, organ, and Moog, but which ends up enchanting precisely because it's atypical and, if not original, certainly courageous. Starting with the gelatinous "La macchina universale", passing through the hypnotic chanting of "Hidden Channels Of The Mind" and the jazz-prog under methadone of "Breakfast With The Lobster", leading to the intimate "They Came To Me", it's a slow descent into the mind's recesses, not necessarily dark nor overtly "avant", but naturally psychedelic, in the broadest sense of the term."