Mad Juana
Acoustic Voodoo
Azra Records/Cadiz Music/Diesel Motor Records

Mad Juana offers an intriguing mix of style son their debut. Balkan tunes mix with New York rock as Karmen Guy sings witchingly. Legend Lenny Kaye guests on a song and guitarist Sami Yaffa also appears in the reformed New York Dolls.

"Living in Babylon" offers a dizzying sound as an enchanting Guy wails. "Venus in Furs" gets respectfully but hectically rendered. It still reeks of sin and pain. "La Llorona" sung in Spanish contains its spell, Guy taking a cunning lead in a plaintive song. It wouldn't be out of place in an Almodovar film. Mad Juana is equally at home with dirty rock as they are with plaintive folk. Their live set must be something else and this album is essential.

Copyright © 2007 Anna Maria Stjärnell