Joel Gion

Joel Gion (Joel Gion)
Reviewed by: DJ Dissociation, 3.25.18
Psych folk in the debut solo album from Joel Gion, previously the tambourinist for psych rock band The Brian Jonestown Massacre. An interesting intersection of rock music and Brazilian rhythms, with varied instrumentation between tracks. Most lyrics are fuzzy and difficult to make out.
Rec: 5,9. FCCs: none

1. (3:52) A gently morphing track with echoing vocals. Downtempo with guitar, synth, and drums. 2. (4:23) Latin dance drum-and-scraper beat holds down echoey and breathy vocals. Latin flute solo partway through. Introspective lyrics, ‘someday I’m gonna die, I am alive.’ 3. (4:50) Latin flute/pipe line opens the track, and recurs throughout. The track sounds like a slow walk through a moonlit jungle. 4. (4:11) Mid-tempo; The Strokes meet Latin dance in a somewhat vocally repetitive track. Big instrumental build to end it. 5.* (3:46) Opens with acoustic finger-picking, quickly turning into a classic Brazilian beat. Your standard vibey bossa nova/samba track. Long instrumental fadeout. 6. (3:46) A slower rainy-day sort of track. Interesting use of bell sounds, including a bike bell, as interjections. Last 10 seconds are silent. 7. (4:07) Repeated line ‘on day like today, on a day like today.’ Little to distinguish this from the rest of the album. 8. (5:19) Intense layered sounds give way to a guitar line that wouldn’t be out of place for the Eagles. Downtempo track, more sparsely instrumented. 9.* (3:21) Mid- to up-tempo track with Arctic Monkeys-adjacent vocals. Stands out from the rest of the album with more distorted electric guitar, distinguishable vocals.