Artist description Jute swirls with intensity and beauty. Bonham-esque beats, guitar driven sonic textures, crystal vocals, and sensuous melodies draped with philosophic tendencies.

Music Style A balancing act of Bonham-esque beats, guitar driven sonic textures, and glassy vocals.

Musical Influences Tricky, DJ Shadow, Massive Attack, Pink Floyd, Miles Davis, David Holmes, Led Zeppelin, Bjork, Curve, Radiohead, Portishead, Angelo Badalamenti

Similar Artists Massive Attack, Led Zeppelin and Cocteau Twins merged together.

Artist History Based in Chicago, Jute was formed in 1999. They spent two years writing and recording their debut CD and are now touring to support it.

Group Members Joe Axis: guitars, bass, keys, programming Julie Axis: vocals, flute, and programming Robb Shakespeare: guitar, keys, and programming Mike Dobkowski: bass

Instruments guitars, bass, samples, drum loops, flute, cello, keys, vocals

Albums Debut CD "a violent narcotic" released Oct. 2002

Press Reviews Jute is a four piece electronic act from Chicago, IL who have something very warm, soothing, and seductive to offer. While the music here is anything but violent, an addicting narcotic it most certainly is. A Violent Narcotic is a mist of woven beats, ambient textures, and revolving rhythms and patterns constantly in flux, moving in and out. Although the band revolve around a rock based instrumental formula -bass, guitar, piano, and some additional flute and cello, the continuous floating beats make it seem unconventional and substantial in creating an etherial soundscape. The dominating force of Jute is the angelic, melting vocals of siren Julie Axis. She is absolutely essential to the workings of Jute, propelling the composition into an abstract lasting beauty. As a whole, Jute's music is somewhere among that middle ground between the ambient textures and beats of Scorn, with the more classical, compositional framework and gorgeous vocals of Amber Asyulm or Miranda Sex Garden. The album also reminds me of the classical/electronic dub work of Controlled Bleeding's Gilded Shadows, particularly Julie's vocal resemblance to Trang on that masterpiece. Despite reference points to other acts, what is very important here is the band's process of finding new ways of musical expression, and their ability to capture the atmospheric beauty successfully and exceptionally. A Violent Narcotic is simply fantastic, exciting, and beautiful material, and Jute is certainly one of the very best bands I have heard in a long while. Again, highly recommended!

Location Chicago, IL - USA

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