It's
rare that an artist suits their chosen nom de plume. Rarer still that they have an interesting life story to tell. But rarest of all is the aptly named artist, with a life story that deserves to be in print who also creates absorbing, expansive and invigorating music. Welcome to that rarest of all beasts Juantrip', creator of stunning mind melting 90s psychedelia, whose life has included being abducted by a hippy commune as a child, running the streets of Paris as teenage punk and sharing a communal acid hallucination in his early twenties. His debut album "Balmy Under the Stormy" draws on all of these experience to conjure a unique work which echoes late sixties psychedelia but redresses it in purely 90s terms. It is, as Basil aka Juantrip¹ himself might say, "a total trip". Long before Juantrip' was ever imagined, the 1969 Versailles born, child of hippy parents, was known simply as Basil. At the age of seven his parents took him to live on a commune in the Pyrenees, an experience which Basil describes as being " a kidnapping, suddenly I was in this place where I just wandered free and everyone looked after me." It was here however that Basil first became aware of the power of music. On his eighth birthday he witnessed the entire commune hear the news of Elvis Presley's death at the same time. All who understood were reduced to tears. Basil's response was to pick up a guitar, pluck at the  strings and spontaneously write his first song, which in turn brought the commune out of their depression. It was called "Black Soap" and Basil was awoken to the world of music.1977 and Basil returned to Paris sporting dyed red hair - unusual for an eight year old kid anywhere - and spent an unremarkable few years in formal education until he quit school at sixteen to become an artist. But he soon left to hang around the French alternative underground. In 1989, he and  a few friends packed up their instruments and headed for the south of France. It was to be another life altering  experience. About eleven of Basil's friends joined him in a huge jam in the mountains. They'd discovered this mountain shack which had an electrical supply so, armed with little more than their instruments, some extras and a plentiful supply of MTE, they embarked on a jam which was to last for four days. "I got my name from here,it was a gift." explains Basil "While we all played I met this smoky spirit guy. He told me my name was  Juantrip'!" And so Juantrip' was born. Stranger still was the fact that all six musicians seemed to have encountered the same vision at the same time. Acid ramblings perhaps, but for Basil and friends the experience completely changed their approach to music. Many of them went off to become DJs and rave party promoters, travelling around Europe with soundsystems. Basil continued to create music playing live at his parties like France's Fantom Raves. It was 1991 and Basil was deeply entrenched in the endless possibilities offered by techno. In 1993 Juantrip' released his first single "Extasy is God", on the short lived Rave-Age Records. However it wasn't until he met F Communications' Eric Morand that his recording career truly started.

Initially signed on a one off deal for the single "Louis' Cry"

The label saw huge potential for creative growth in JuanTrip'.
Over the course of the next few years Basil worked hard on his production in order to find his own voice.

With each new release the Juantrip' sound has become more unique, moving away from it's techno base into a wider, more inclusive sound.

1996's "Interstone EP" edged
towards a sound described by the
productor Eric Morand as"Psychedelic
techno rock'n'roll"... with Basil drawing
on a lifetime's experience in order to realise his own ideas...

On "Ble" from the 1999
7 inch single"Electronic"
he delved ever deeper into those wayward psychedelic soundscapes and heady vocals offering an insight into the direction he was travelling in. Which brings us to "Balmy Under the Stormy", a culmination of one man's extraordinary journey through music and life. One of the most panoramic explorations into the eclectic that you're likely to hear this year, the album is best summarised by the inner sleeve artwork. Featuring a world map printed upside down and in reverse, it questions all of those things we hold to be true. Who said North was up, that white isn't black and that techno isn't rock'n'roll. Who said that a communal hallucination couldn't happen and that "Black Soap" wasn't a bigger event than Elvis' death. With tracks like the brooding "Fly to the Moon" with it's contorted strings, lo fi electronica and vocodered psychosis or the dreamscaped ambience of the lysergically charged "Downward Rush of Streams", the album introduces a new lexicon into the world of psychedelia.

In fact the album itself is a lie." "Balmy Under the Stormy" is accompanied by a fully interactive internet website which will also question our accepted perception of real and unreal, truth and lies. A unique album from a unique artist with an equally unique life story, "Balmy Under the Stormy" will turn your world on its head.

Martin James