Collected Sounds: A Guide To Women in Music
Voices & Visions
Opus Zine

MAXIMUM INK, Andrew Frey

A narcotic that is VIOLENT? Could this music be the soundtrack to a high suspense high tech pop geek movie? Or perhaps it's one of the fresher breezes to blow out of Chicago lately. Jute's debut album, which has been two years in the making, brings together Chicago scene veterans Julie Axis (a founding member of My Scarlet Life) and Joe Axis as well as Robb Shakespeare, Michael Dobkowski (ex-Aleutian), Dan Smith (of Salvo Beta) and Dave Keller. Miss Axis ' ethereal female vocals enchant and entice you, as the subtle sultry rhythms wash over you. Most songs consist of genre spanning gothic-techno crossover beats with occasional mysterious middle-eastern flavors sprinkled on. As well as having great production, this disc also contains a cool enhanced video track for "Southern Exposure." Outside of guest performers, Arturo Valle (Jute's artistic wizard) does live video mixing projected on a screen behind the band. You will need your "Violent Narcotic fix again and again." And, again, I know. I'm a Jute junkie. This is spellbinding music for your winter in oblivion. Press play.
www.maximumink.com

BABYSUE MAGAZINE

Interesting Chicago band. The tunes on A Violent Narcotic sound something like a cross between Bill Laswell, The Cocteau Twins, and Yoko Ono. Jute compositions are built around dub-like rhythms and feature spooky electronics that merge with hypnotic female vocals. While the tunes have definite parameters...the band obviously enjoys experimenting with sounds. These eleven tracks are dense and peculiar...yet they have a strangely calming effect. Wonderful stuff here...particularly when you consider the fact that the band is doing it all on their own. Bewildering and satisfying cuts include "Southern Exposure," "Rising of Reason," "Clay," and "Opium."
(Rating: 5)
www.babysue.com

DIGITAL ARTIFACT.org, Brad Anderson

Is it possible to find heaven within a flowing, resonating body of melancholic dream-inducing music? Æther ex cantus is perhaps the hidden modus operendi by which Chicago-based collective Jute create their music. Whether it was fate or alignment of the cosmos that brought this quartet of musical spirits together we may never know, but for certain there is a mystical synergy existing between Jute’s members, that enables the music to exhibit a heavenly organic quality, the likes of which most have never experienced.

A complex and mesmerizing debut like A Violent Narcotic is no easy task to communicate because the music speaks a language all its own. Think cerebral. Think exotic. Think paradise. Think ecstasy. Imagine a drugged-out, post-industrial sound so addictive, so intoxicating, that the senses welcome the sensual rhythms of enrapture. The sedate percussion and helixing minimal beats that co-exist in perfect harmony throughout A Violent Narcotic drift along a hallucinogenic continuum that stimulates the senses and completely occupy the mind. There is a genuine and natural serenity reached within the 11 core tracks on A Violent Narcotic, making it an ideal dosage of ear candy for anyone who appreciates ambient, tribal and ethereal disciplines and imprints like Nettwerk and Projekt.

Though this quartet relies on electronics as an integral component to their sound, they are by no means a typical electronic outfit. Jute’s approach towards sound design is shared equally by its four members, allowing the celestial vocals of Julie Axis, which exhibit a particular hypnotic quality all their own, to guide the music and listener through an entrancing maze of sight and sound. The tripped out peripheral rhythms that swirl around Axis’ vocals are pure beauty in motion, and provide cushioning warmth to complement the glowing soul of Jute.

Perhaps this debut would have been more aptly titled An Opulent Narcotic, as one will find no moment of rhythm that resonates aggression or violent tendencies. “Ephemeral,” “Advent of Zero,” “Darksand,” “Narcotic,” and “Opium” will casually spark the hookah to usher in a musical experience that will take your mind to an entirely different state of consciousness.
www.digitalartifact.org

OPUS MAGAZINE, Jason Morehead

With its hypnotic beats, sensual vocals, and dark atmospheres, "A Violent Narcotic" is probably what Massive Attack's "The 100th Window" should've been. The group is definitely up on their downtempo skills, but the album's otherworldly feel also displays an affinity for the ethnic and spiritual sounds of Dead Can Dance. Julie Axis' vocals often take on a chant-like feel, while the band's lush instrumentation swirls around like incense. At times, the ambience can almost be suffocating, but the effect is so intoxicating that you probably won't mind.
www.opuszine.com

JACKALBLASTER WEBZINE, Jeramy Ponder

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 ethereal 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 Asylum 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!
www.angelfire.com

SPLENDID EZINE, Ron Davies

In the wake of high-profile crossovers by Massive Attack and Portishead, the word "downtempo" has lost much of its power. Jute, however, stand poised to renew the sense of sensual floating the word once carried. While the group's various musical elements are nothing new to the genre, only a handful of artists have used them this successfully. A Violent Narcotic is a rich, moving example of what the trip-hop genre can achieve. Lush, enveloping melodies are encased in rhythms that move like amber and experimental sounds that add unexpected angles to music that is all curves. In the middle of all this, the voice rises; here it's provided by Julie Axis, formerly of My Scarlet Life. Her warm, glowing vocals drip honey over the music, and her sweeping delivery mostly hints at lyrics rather than hewing concrete words. This gives the music's alluring caress an additional layer of shifting focus -- but does not diminish the role played by the rest of the band (Joe Axis, Robb Shakespeare, and Michael Dobkowski). The music feels familiar, and warrants comparisons to some of the genre's classics, but Jute sets themselves apart by incorporating a more worldly sound into their music. This gives songs such as "Rising of Reason" a foreign taste that recalls the Orb's Orbus Terrarum, or anything by Oxygene 23. Elsewhere, as on "Advent of Zero", the tempo increases just enough to inspire head-bobbing, as Jute hits the same Zen groove that Pigface has explored, with devastating effectiveness, on its last two records. On "Darksand", Jute uses contrasting tempos for a mid-song shift that makes my heart jump each time I hear it. Even so, A Violent Narcotic's true standout is "Ephemeral", a smoldering piece that lives up to its name. It carries the same overwhelming sensation as the first hit from a bong packed with really great pot -- the music seeps into your pores and lifts you away from everything but the flow of the rhythm. Comparable (though less intense) states are achieved throughout this powerful debut. In addition to the music, A Violent Narcotic includes a video for "Southern Exposure" -- but I haven't wanted to take the album out of my stereo for long enough to watch it. Instead, I've turned off the lights, turned up the volume, and repeatedly allowed Jute's sound to take me on a satisfying and electrifying journey.
www.splendidezine.com

BEST FEMALE MUSICIANS, Dennis Halsey

As I read the press kit hype for Jute's debut CD, 'a violent narcotic,' I was expecting miracles, and Jute did not fall short of delivering. Their music is a front runner in what could be an emerging genre that I chose to list as Ethereal Voices for this site's purposes. They run around many different influences like dance, rock, club, and gothic blending them into a ball that is quite ambient. The CD creates a mood and an atmosphere that it is enjoyable to be welcomed into, even if only for a short while.

At times the vocals remind me of Julee Cruise. And that always reminds me of David Lynch. This is the type of music you could easily find backing a David Lynch movie. There is an eerieness and spookiness to the CD, but these are enjoyable qualities. The music almost transports you to another place for awhile, kind of like a violent narcotic! without the violence.

Jute is Julie Axis on vocals and flute, Joe Axis on guitar, bass, piano, vocals, and programming, Robb Shakespeare on guitar, piano, and programming, and Michael Dobkowski on bass. Jute hail from Chicago but, with music like this, will soon be known far and wide. I highly recommend giving this CD a listen to anyone who is interested in this type of music, it promises not to disappoint.
bestfemalemusicians.com

INDIE-MUSIC.com, Jennifer Layton

There is something so sacred about Jute’s music, not just in the celestial feel, but in the reaction it provokes. The skin tingles and the imagination opens doors it doesn’t usually want to touch. The ghostly, mystical tracks feel like floating in a lake at midnight, looking up at the stars. The darker sounds with erotic beats feel like dancing in a dangerous place and not ever wanting to leave. Angels and demons writhe together in this music. This band creates seductive electronica that envelopes and challenges, teases and demands. I feel like I’m part of a ceremony. At times, the percussion feels like stormclouds in the distance. The songs, led by the sighing and alluring vocals of Julie Axis, move from chanting, rhythmic and tribal to smoothly sensual and hypnotic. Background spirits call to one another. The heart skips a beat with the occasionally, unexpected jolts of gothic hip-hop. Some of the melodies have a Middle Eastern flavor. Enter this world. The spirits will bite sometimes, but you will want them to.
www.indie-music.com

AMBIENTRANCE.org

Even if labeled as a violent narcotic, I estimate the ratio of jute's aural sedative/stimulant to be 95% narcotic and only 5% violent... Body- & soul-moving trance-rock mesmerizes, topped by Julie Axis' songstress skills. Deep pulsations and crisp rhythms plow through waves of shimmery vapors and feminine whispers, as Southern Exposure sets a languid-yet-energized pace. Kalimba-like tones and indistinct wordcurrents adorn the ethereal groove of Ephemeral, spattered with flailed cymbals and skins. Spectral essences of tribalism and murmured rap are stirred into the slipstream of male words, writhing guitar and featherlight she-vocal ribbons in Rising of Reason (3:50); Eerie piano notes traipse in slow-motion over the drum-driven flows.

Julie's voice gets a more-pronounced (and more nasally) position in clay, wailing against hypnotic whorls of bottom-heavy ooze. Sassier rhythms form a backbone for invertebrate's he/she murmurs, while phantasmal tribalism lingers in a foggy backdrop. The hazily swaying swirls of Opium (9:09) entrance in a throbbing, slow-motion cycle; ear-visions writhing within include digital rain, frizzly textures, sweet ivories, guitar grinds, wordless croons and more. Jute is: Julie Axis (vocals, flute), Robb Shakespeare (guitar, piano, programming), Joe Axis (guitar, bass, vocals, piano, programming), Michael Dobkowksi (bass) and friends.

The mind-altering rocktronic vibrations of a violent narcotic take a rather ritualistic stance, submerging deeply into a nocturnal miasma in which lovely/somber rock, electro-tribal and gothereal styles are dashed with dark-ambient tendencies. Much slicker (in all manners) than your usual "self-release", jute's shadow-highlighted debut garners a drone-along A- from me.... I'm narcotized!
www.ambientrance.org

ALTAR MAGAZINE

Moody, deep, smoky, thick, layered, ethereal vocals. Clean but complex, smooth but intriguing with well constructed songs and rhythms that have a certain something that says... this is Jute, not one of a million other bands. The CD lives up to the "narcotic" part of its name; its hypnotic instrumentals and sweet, dreaminess demand more than one listen. But it's much to smooth to be violent. The music is layered in a intriguing way that made me eager to discover what each track would unfold into. There is no guessing where each song will go - each is a journey to a different place in space and time. It won't make you dance, it won't make you cry, but it can set you free to relax and let dreams fly... there isn't a flat or boring tune on this record.
www.altarmagazine.com

ALLMUSIC.com, Daphne Carr

Chicago band Jute combines the ethereal leanings of the Cocteau Twins and early Verve with the spooked, gothy leanings of more beat-driven bands like Portishead or Miranda Sex Garden. Frontwoman Julie Axis (formerly of My Scarlet Life) often croons indecipherable bliss into layers of studio gauze while the band, who spends an equal amount of time programming as in live sound, adds mostly menacing ambient drones and deep, slow beats not unlike those of Chris & Cosey or other industrial/goth pioneers. The piano-sprinkled surge of "Rising of Reason" provides a more concrete base from which Joe Axis' sing-speech, a kind of Edward Ka Spel incantation, sets a base for Julie's soaring choruses. The otherwise-understated darkwave leanings of the album are much to their credit — only "Free" takes on the truly cringeworthy sheen of "for goths, by goths" by matching Charles Stevens' theatrically enraged spoken word with backwards reverbed drums and a slightly out-of-tune chant. Press for the album is decidedly subcultural, but Jute's amazing, mature production and oozy, well-crafted songs have the potential to reach beyond the gothic ghetto.
www.allmusic.com

HALO – 17, Lauren Harding-Healy

Weighted Rating: 7.9 (Good)

The press kit for this album was very promising. "Warm Beats, wrapped in sensuous melodies", it trumpeted. "Jute swirls with intensity and beauty". Of course, one thing that's usually a constant with press kits is that they're nothing but a pack of lies trotted out by some marketing graduate, but even so, the hyperbole usually allows you to pick out how a record is going to suck.

Based on the press kit for this album, I thought that Jute were going to be a Portishead or Massive Attack knockoff. Which is somewhat true in a way, "A Violent Narcotic" references both of those bands very heavily. What makes this album different, and worthy in it's own way, is that Jute incorporate just enough of a foreign flavour into their music to make it stand out.

Without a doubt, the highlight of this album for me is the angelic vocals of singer Julie Axis, who sprinkles her gloriously high-pitched lyrics over the music like icing sugar on a cake. Although I must admit that I'm a sucker for female vocals like this, these particular vocals are a particularly fine example of what can and should be done with music like this. Julie uses her voice to devastating effect on tracks like Ephemeral, which seeps into your head and will take you away to another place, sort of like a drug hit but without the health risks and illegality.

With all the concentration on the lyrics, it might be easy to think that the vocals are what carry this record, and that the instrumentation is just there to fill in the spaces. Fortunately, this is not true at all, while the rest of the band is a lot more low-key in their impact, they have that impact nonetheless. The band is very adept as blending genres together into a seething, textured feel, which incorporates genres as different as indie rock, hip-hop, and goth into it's style. Some tracks groove along, like Advent of Zero, while others are simply unsettling pieces of music, like DarkSand, which features dramatic tempo shifts that will stop you from getting complacent.

While it's not perfect, there are a few spots where the music attempts to get a little too chic for it's own good, this record is a very good genre-crossing release by a band that has a bright future. Eerie, spooky, yet seductive enough to make love to, it's a little hidden gem that has received too little attention.
www.halo-17.net

GOTHIC NATION, John S.

Gothic Nation Issue #4 located in Australia (Goth Nation is now called Fiend) Print Article

Hailing from Chicago, Jute presents an intelligent and highly layered experience on this, their debut release. Everything about the CD mixes well, from Julie Axis’ divine ethereal vocals, the minimalist piano, subtle electronics and throbbing bass-lines, to the luscious mixture of guitars (both acoustic and electric) and drops of cello. Add somewhat funky and occasionally repetitive drums to the mix and the serious background music punctuates the foreground enough to demand your attention. These are tunes to truly soak up. Despite the title, this isn’t particularly dark music; it’s sincere, somewhat sombre and occasionally ominous, but never to the point of confrontation or emotional wrenching. The style is best described as a soothing mix of Urban Ambient/ Ethereal, but it’s not tonally wishy-washy, or even terribly upbeat. This is a textually rich landscape deserving of any reclusive musically- enthused escapist. Bliss-out music for modern realists
- JohnS

THE CELEBRITY CAFÉ

Wow. This is different. Jute describes themselves as "hypnotic beats drenched in sonic textures and sensual vocals". I would agree, but my first imagery was that of a very underground, New York City nightclub. It had the beat and the wailing of vocals in the background reminding me of entering a dark, secluded night club.
thecelebritycafe.com

SCORE ROCKS, Cristy

Jute’s CD has a cool techno edge with ambient vibes. Very soothing and sensual, which would make a great backdrop while gettin’ it on with your honey. They’ve been aligned with, if not compared to Cocteau Twins, Massive Attack, DJ Shadow and Curve. Eastern influences abound, so if that’s your flavor, you’ll be doing yourself a favor if you check out "A Violent Narcotic".
www.scorerocks.com

MOVING HANDS, Jens Eriksson

In the early and mid nineties Massive Attack and Portishead were the pioneers of the new, emerging trip hop scene. Blending the philosophy of dance music with the lyricism of hip-hop all wired, and fucked up with a sinister grin, reeking with your preferred choice of drugs. About ten years later Jute has more or less copied that formula of early nineties trip hop, added a few things but unfortunately also missed out a whole lot. Jute, being the third generation of trip-hoppers the whole concept is beginning to feel a wee bit watered down. Much of the problem probably lies in the fact that this kind of music has been tightly connected to a time and a place that just isn’t the same anymore. Not an argument for that it can't have any relevance or importance, cause in spite of this Jute still feels like they have something to offer us listeners, but still...

Not very violent, but certainly narcotic, Jute sucks you in with its hypnotic beats and feverish sonic textures. Although Jute manages to bring back at least some of the magic of the past it still feels like some vital ingredient is missing. Both Massive Attack and Portishead were all things apart, and all the fancy hype stripped down, great songwriters. But maybe most importantly great lyricists. Jute is neither of those. Behind the rhythms and all the brooding soundscapes there just isn’t anything there. Not any real ideas that would hold up a song in itself and resultantly "A Violent Narcotic" feels a tad monotone and shapeless, with nothing to either upset nor surprise you. Still, Jute succeeds in creating some of that great slow burning, seductive beats we all love. Julie Axis (formerly in My Scarlet Life) is the natural centre in Jute’s set-up. With her soothing yet highly sensual voice she lifts Jute to a higher level, making "A Violent Narcotic", to some extent, a beautiful and exciting experience.

Though "A Violent Narcotic" is rather faceless there's a few standout pieces. The opener, "Southern Exposure" is a good down-tempo song (well, they all are) with a nice dreamlike feel to it. Julie Axis excellent voice really shines here. Her playful and strange vocal snippets perfectly underline the surreal and evocative undertones of the music, creating a dark and sinister edge, which really gets to me. Perfect for those late night rituals down in your suburban backyard. Luckily for us, the video is also included here, and it’s a pretty decent one too. Fitting the mood of the song nicely.

Jute exists on a functional level, nothing special but it will do the works if you need a quick fix of those nice trippy beats. Or if you’ve perhaps grown tired of "Mezzanine" or maybe feel that "100th Window" didn’t quite cut it, then maybe Jute is something for you. Otherwise, don’t bother.
www.movinghands.net

POP MATTERS, David Antrobus

Ethereal plus gothic equals "gothereal?" Ambient plus tribal equals trambient? Gauzy 4AD throwback style plus trip-hop equals Dead Can Attack? Okay, perhaps that's unnecessarily facetious, but this admittedly courageous self-release by Chicago, Illinois band Jute invites a certain level of both skepticism and guarded admiration for its unconventional yet transparent rocktronic borrowings. Elements of deadly earnest estro-goth brush sensuously against more beat-driven electronic grooves, and when it works it pretty much works, but when it doesn't... it can be precious or even (sorry to say) boring.

Jute are Julie Axis (voice, flute), Joe Axis (guitar, bass, vocals, keys, programming), Robb Shakespeare (guitar, keys, programming), and Michael Dobkowski (bass), plus friends, all of whom have lent their talents to sundry local acts including My Scarlet Life, Is-U-Is, ShadowTribe, and Glitch.

This is deeply subcultural music. Access must be earned. Hypnotic whorls of angelic vocal vapours swirl around nocturnal, or at least twilit, bass-heavy columns of heartbeat and blood-rhythm. Middle Eastern microtonic scales dance with (and beckon and flirt with) Western pop sensibilities, both subtly alien and subliminally enticing, placing a far greater emphasis on the "narcotic" of the title than on the "violent". Chants vie with dance; studio beats with transient bleats and narcoleptic sleep. If it doesn't always blend into something cohesive (and it doesn't), you have to admire the audacity of the attempt, at least.

Most of the songs share a kind of relentless downtempo uniformity. Most feature diaphanous voices -- wispy, meandering and female or whispery, threatening and male -- barely heard above the swirling maelstrom. Most sound defeated and passive, with many of the titles alone providing more than mere covert hints ("Ephemeral", "Darksand", "Invertebrate", "Narcotic", and "Opium"). There are moments, however, when the album bids for attention, when something leaps from the mix like a solar flare from the roiling gaseous surface of the sun. These moments often occur near the slow arrested ends of songs, after the beats have played out, like unfinished afterthoughts more intriguing than the full thoughts which preceded them: small burblings ("Southern Exposure"); sparse piano icicle drips ("Free"); evocative birdsong ("Clay") and rainfall ("Opium"). With melodies not quite compelling enough, and rhythmic structures too similar throughout, the bulk of these songs fall just shy of something profound and gorgeous (which does bode well, at least, for future releases).

However, let's not forget those solar flare exceptions.

"Free" features a viscous bass melting behind a crisp backwards hiss of beats. A simple piano motif repeats alongside Julie Axis's enervated banshee drift ("free-ee-eee" over and over) while Charles Stevens's susurrant spoken word guest vocals rove across this tentative landscape like an indistinct predator looking for victims. "Advent of Zero" reads like a millennial clash of worldviews (check out the dense cultural layers packed into the simple words "advent" and "zero", for instance), tinkling pseudo Christmas bells retreating before the rise of Islam suggested by both mideastern tones and tabla-like beats. Unspeakable industrial clanking sounds come in and out of focus, like a counter-threat. Near the end, sudden keen guitar wails emanate from within all these uneasy and discordant juxtapositions like a preemptive fuchsia sunset over desert twilight. "Vow" is like a thwarted escape, crystalline guitar wings trying to soar but finally broken and dragged back earthwards by the gravity of a shapeshifting rhythm. And the last song, "Opium", is ripe and strange with its evocative pattering of heavy rainfall on hard ground, its hollow hushed storm's-eye expectancy, and its interplay between a sinewy bejeweled-midriff sway and a rickety traveling snake-oil circus beat.

Otherwise, Jute's influences are too distractingly apparent. The Massive Attack of Mezzanine is summoned all too clearly by the doom and gloom sub-rapped male vocals of "Rising of Reason", which really ought to be renamed "Rising (of rea) Son" (although to be fair, Jute manage to transcend similar indebtedness on the far superior "Invertebrate"). Both Liz Fraser's hoarse early-Cocteau warble and Lisa Gerrard's seraphic wails are referenced too often for comfort, with Julie Axis only suffering in the comparison, and edging closer to New Age-isms than anyone could reasonably wish for.

A Violent Narcotic is content to wallow in the honeyed embrace of its own opium den haze at the expense of dynamism. A little more violence to counter the soporific trippiness would go a long way.

SPACE JUNKIES, Wednesday

JUTE produces music that is highly textured and at times hard to digest and accept in its true form, however the ethereal and atmospheric forms with soft lullaby vocals and tribal elements will captivate you nonetheless. This is a must have for those that enjoy intelligent music that comes complete with mind opening experiences.
Rating: 9/10
www.spacejunkies.net