Artist: Jeffrey’s Jaws
Single: Caravan
Label: Independent
Release Date: 7 January 2022
Location: Kirov
Digital Price: 1 USD
Genre: Psychedelic rock/funk
Jeffrey’s Jaws describes themselves as three young guys from small-town Russia who developed a love for funk, blues and Motown tracks and just had to begin their own project inspired by the brilliance of what they heard. That’s totally understandable, given the wealth of incredible releases that Motown has given us over the years. Jeffrey’s Jaws oozes the feel of 1970s-1980s counterculture, and the darker sound of the main riff in Caravan is also epitomised by the band referencing serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer in their own name.
There’s a dark energy that permeates this track. The central riff is funky as hell, the sort of thing one would expect to hear in a p-funk track from a George Clinton project like Funkadelic. The sort of thing you could imagine Eddie Hazel playing. There’s lots of percussion, tambourines and cymbals abound, critical in the atmosphere of the song in their various rhythms but also driving a forward sense of motion as we travel across the desert the band sings about.
Every once in a while, you’ll find a band that releases a track in a non-native language for their region. Caravan is one such single, with lyrics entirely in English despite being entirely a Russian product. The vocals themselves are quite trance-like, nearly a rhythmic chanting sound with that sort of almost spiritual atmosphere that enters the realm of bands like Om. Of course, that all deepens the dark atmosphere of this track, which is itself about a Donner Party-like group crossing the desert. They cannot reach their destination in time, and so we are left with the lone survivor’s struggle to deal with his own Dahmer-like reality as a cannibal.
These boys from small-town Russia, Jeffrey’s Jaws, have an absolute gem with this track. Their diverse influences, from edgy Motown funk to American serial killers combined with a modern psychedelic rock sound are something special. Something that, for only $1, is an absolute steal.
I hope you enjoy Caravan.
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