Double LP version. Berlin-based Jahcoozi is comprised of Sasha Perera (London), Oren Gerlitz (Tel Aviv), and Robot Koch (Berlin), and this is their debut album for Kitty-Yo. Despite singer Perera's background as a London-born Sri Lankan, the M.I.A. references stop here. A sometimes-gritty, sometimes slick mash up of blip-hop, ragga-tech, R'n'B-fused punk and click-pop illectronica, this is much more than what misinformed people might call grime. A Shakespeare's Sister/Neptunes collab?!! Instead, it's just three youngsters from different musical and cultural backgrounds who met in the electronic music cosmos of Berlin to indulge in an uninhibited mix of genres. At the beginning, Jahcoozi were just into making freaky beats and messing about with vocals. There was less text and less structure. The band then started to experiment with pop; more songs and less IDM glitch for the sake of it. This development can be seen on Pure Breed Mongrel, which contains tracks made between 2002 and 2005. It is hard to define and impossible to pigeonhole the sound of Jahcoozi. Maybe a bit like the (Brit-Sri Lankan-Israeli-West German) avant/glitch-pop trio Jahcoozi themselves. Pure Breed Mongrel is a mish-mash of genres but despite this immense style crossover, Jahcoozi have managed to create their very own sound and house it within a homogenic album which is full of surprises. A pure breed of mongrel. Mongrel music, made by mongrel people for a mongrel society.
