Soul-Junk is an

experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when ...

genre-hopping

Christian rock Christian rock is a form of rock music that features lyrics focusing on matters of Christian faith, often with an emphasis on Jesus, typically performed by self-proclaimed Christian individuals. The extent to which their lyrics are explicitly Ch ...

and hip hop group from

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California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

Background

The roots of Soul-Junk began in 1993 when Glen Galloway began experimenting while touring in Europe with his rock band

Trumans Water Trumans Water are an American indie rock band, hailing from San Diego, California. They have released over a dozen albums over their career, on which they collaborated with acts in genre, including Azalia Snail, Chan Marshall and Thurston Moore. ...

. By the time Trumans Water moved to

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in 1994 he had already left and concentrated on Soul-Junk as a full-time independent solo project, eventually taking the moniker Glen Galaxy. Influences on the group's early music include

Nation of Ulysses The Nation of Ulysses was an American punk rock band from Washington, D.C., formed in spring 1988 with four members. Originally known as simply "Ulysses," the first mark of the group consisted of Ian Svenonius on vocals and trumpet, Steve Kroner ...

Sonic Youth Sonic Youth was an American rock band based in New York City, formed in 1981. Founding members Thurston Moore (guitar, vocals), Kim Gordon (bass, vocals, guitar) and Lee Ranaldo (guitar, vocals) remained together for the entire history of the b ...

, and Can. Galloway had been raised as a

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

but had been an outspoken

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

since leaving home for school.Floyd, John (1997)
God and Junk
, ''

Miami New Times The ''Miami New Times'' is a newspaper published in Miami, Florida, United States, and distributed every Thursday. It primarily serves the Miami area and is headquartered in Miami's Wynwood Art District. Overview It was acquired by Village Voic ...

'', February 13, 1997, retrieved November 21, 2009 Shortly before joining Trumans Water, however, he had returned to Christianity; later telling his bandmates God had called him to leave the band.

Musical Evolution

Early Soul-Junk albums (such as ''1950'') almost exclusively feature low-fi,

Indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

style tracks of Glen singing Bible verses interlaced with instrumental noise tracks, with a similarity to his previous band but with overtly Christian lyrics. As Soul-Junk gained members its sound advanced toward rock and pop. ''1953'' and ''1954'' show signs of this continual change. ''

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'' stated in a review of ''1953'' that their indie musical arrangements are outstanding, "tuneful, energetic and original (almost to a fault)." ''1955'' is transitional, both in terms of Soul-Junk's sound and market stance. Like previous releases most of the lyrics came directly from the Bible, but ''1955'' was their first album released on a Christian record label. The double-disk set consists of pop / Indie rock / hip hop influenced sounds. It is also the last disk to make extensive use of Biblical quotes before ''1959''. While there are fewer lyrics derived from scripture, the albums ''1956'' through ''1958'' still reflect on the groups' Christianity based viewpoint, sometimes offering critiques of the Church in a stream-of consciousness manner. On ''1956'' the sound shifts toward hip hop, leading ''

CCM Magazine ''CCM Magazine'' is a twice-monthly online magazine focusing on contemporary Christian music, published by Salem Publishing, a division of Salem Communications. History ''CCM'' was first published in July 1978, as a printed magazine. It has bee ...

'' to describe it as "beyond offbeat, beyond eclectic... beyond the grasp of its market." This position is intentional according to Galaxy, who seeks to reach a wider audience than simply the church, and states "We do need to rock the boat... I dont particularly want anyone to think they know what they can expect from Soul-Junk." The albums ''1957'' and ''1958'' are based in experimental, abstract hip-hop which sometimes adds elements of "avant-jazz." Glen explained this period to ''HM Magazine'', stating "energy-wise I'm feeling the

drum n' bass Drum and bass (also written as drum & bass or drum'n'bass and commonly abbreviated as D&B, DnB, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by fast breakbeats (typically 165–185 beats per minute) with heavy bass and sub-ba ...

, I'm feeling chaotic

turntablism Turntablism is the art of manipulating sounds and creating new music, sound effects, mixes and other creative sounds and beats, typically by using two or more turntables and a cross fader-equipped DJ mixer. The mixer is plugged into a PA system ...

. But texture-wise I was feeling hip-hop." The resulting sound is fragmented; Soul Junk's "berserk-hop" on these albums is "hip-hop so out-there, so deconstructed, so avant-garde" that it creates a "carnival aesthetic". Between 2003 and 2007, no albums were released. Instead, Glen embarked on an effort to put the entire text of the Bible to music. The first results are ''1959'' (released in 2007) which consists of

Psalms The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived ...

1-23 verbatim, and "1960" (released in 2009) which consists of all 22 sub-chapters of

119. Glen has also released the entire

Book of Genesis The Book of Genesis (from Greek ; Hebrew: בְּרֵאשִׁית ''Bəreʾšīt'', "In hebeginning") is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its first word, ( "In the beginning") ...

through his web site. Shortly after recording 1960 (with Daniel Smith from

Danielson Famile Danielson is an American rock band from Clarksboro, New Jersey, that plays indie pop gospel music. The group consists of frontman Daniel Smith and a number of various artists with whom he collaborates. Smith has also released solo work as Brot ...

), Glen started playing with his son Jude on drums and daughter Mila. His brother Jon returned on bass, and his brother Brian started playing keyboards and guitar.

Recurring members

*Glen Galaxy *Jude Galaxy *Mila Galaxy *Jon Galaxy *Brian Galaxy *Slo-Ro (2001–2005) *Brian Cantrell (1995–2000) * DJ Mizzicah (1997–2003) *Ron Easterbrooks (1995–1998) *Nathan Poage (1998–2000) Many others are credited per album or track.

Discography

Album naming convention

The first Soul-Junk release was called ''1950''. Its name was derived from the musical style of the era, a fusion of

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

and

free-jazz Free jazz is an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventions, such as regular tempos, tones, and chord changes. Musicians durin ...

. According to Glen, "1950...was a good year for music". Subsequent albums have been numbered up from 1950; Extended Play releases have been numbered down, but further numbering does not reflect the music of those years. Soul-Junk songs have also been released on many compilations.

References

External links

{{Authority control Christian hip hop groups American hip hop groups Homestead Records artists Musical groups established in 1993 Musical groups from California Musical groups from San Diego Experimental hip hop Shrimper Records artists Sub Pop artists