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Jamiroquai

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Jamiroquai 

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Jamiroquai

Sorry for the redundancy, but: Time is the ultimate test for timeless music- and so far- Time has been nice to Jamiroquai. Whether it was their use in the dance scene of Napoleon Dynamite or a recent Woodstock '99 documentary, time (and hindsight being what it is) has shown that these neo-hippies, who were everything all at once: proudly multicultural, yet, rooted in their own British and filtered funk-  were pioneers in blending genres and actually come off as the normal ones in today's musical-landscape where rappers are rock-stars and rock-stars are playing country music over hip-hop beats... what a world! A little bit about this band: Jamiroquai formed in London in 1992 & got their name from the word jam and a Native American tribe (Iroquois). Their music serves as a certain blend of Stevie Wonder's funky era, Bootsy Collins' heaviness, plus- with the magic charm of lead-singer's Jay Kay's iconic voice- the band creates an organic spacey-funk-sound that can only truly be described by what they are- bam!- Jamiroquai. The group found themselves riding that weird wave of the late '80s and early '90s UK scene when rave culture and retro, gourmet R&B and a certain sector of electronica was finding its own branch of music. Kay and his keyboardist and chief collaborator, Toby Smith, studied Innervisions-era Wonder carefully, and just about everything the group has recorded sounds like it could in fact have been played by the master himself. This music puts the listener in blissed-out rave mind-set where eventually the listener is asked to sit on a comfy-couch in some weird acid-jazz-lounge. Whoa- now we're floating in space: What is this aimless, endless head-trip... and just when you figure it out- they bring you back to earth & deeper underground. There's a certain beauty in not knowing where Jay Kay & the gang are steering the vessel to next in their funky trip their laying down. Although Kay's lyrics may not be as heavy as some of the funkateers before him, you can't help but admire the identity and little sector of the cow funk & era of music this band came up in: There was a certain weridness to the '90s the likes I don't think we will see again as far as that gumbo of music. Any of the band's first five albums: 1993's Emergency on Planet Earth, 1994's The Return of the Space Cowboy, 1996's Traveling Without Moving, 1999's Synkronized, and 2001's A Funk Odyssey are sure to satisfy any funk-head or EDM-head wanting to get down on the dancefloor. It was their third album that saw the band break out and get the (undeservingly) one-hit-wonder status with the song "Virtual Insanity." Their song "Deeper Underground" was a number one in their native of UK and songs like "Cosmic Girl" can't help but funkify your life. The band has since released three more albums since their first (what I consider to be classic[s]) five albums (all of which have gotten the remaster treatment they deserve): 2005's Dynamite, 2010's Rock Dust Light Star, and 2017's Automaton. They also made a mix for the LateNightTales series, which I'm a big fan of- don't sleep on that mixtape compilation series! They even made a Behind the Music episode which is available on YouTube- so you don't even need to keep reading... ... Lead singer Jay Kay is basically the only original member left and is now just fronting a sad attempt of what used to be a real outfit rather than.... the modern reincarnation which is far from being the real band they were in their late '90s heyday. Either way: The music still holds up and always will, as time will test. No need to ask why.

It's...

Jamiroquai

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