Joggo – Why It Doesn’t Matter To You – Review

October 8, 2020

Joggo: Why It Doesn’t Matter To You Single Review by Mr Topple for Pauzeradio.com.

In these troubling times, it has been heartening to see such a wealth of politically and socially-charged, conscious music coming out of the Roots scene. And Joggo has just added to this.

Why It Doesn’t Matter To You, released via Joggo Music Productions, sees the artist create an almost throwback Roots-meets-Synthwave sound: heavy on the electronic, heavy on the unsettling and heavy on the conscious lyrics. The end result is a brooding and affecting track.

It opens with a nicely compressed and scratchy vocal countdown, before the track begins proper. Central to Why It Doesn’t… are various Roots musical devices, all carefully used to bring a rich yet disconcerting sound. Keys run an authentic bubble rhythm on the offbeats – their sound being high-passed with decent tinniness. There’s good use of light decay across them, too, which is a nice finishing touch. The keys are then enhanced by an electric guitar which does a broken, half-time skank to rhythmically match the keys. The bass, rich and resonant, performs a drop-beat, syncopated rhythm across the diatonic scale – running a melodically intricate riff that gives the track subtle momentum. Its engineering is particularly smart, as its not over-powering in terms of the dB, but is omnipresent just enough to give some real depth to the track.

Drums perform a standard one drop. But it’s lightly touched, with more emphasis on the heavily reverbed snare and cymbal crashes at the end of every second bar as opposed to the usually dominant kick. The hi-hats build the momentum with the bass, as they work across semiquaver-led rhythms. Additional blocks and a vibraslap increase the percussive interest. But it’s the additional instrumental lines on Why It Doesn’t… which really stand out.

An electric organ drives the chord progressions, but only fleetingly at the start of the track. It’s a fascinating musical trick – as it immediately enhances the depth of the arrangement. But this lulls you into a false sense of security, as the organ then vanishes for the rest of the track, hammering home the starkness of the composition further. Strings put in brief appearances, around halfway through on the instrumental bridge. They run a semiquaver countermelody to Joggo’s main one. And their sudden appearance is effective, bringing yet more un-nerving vibes to Why It Doesn’t…

But it’s the rasping, slightly distorted melodica which is centre stage. It also runs a melody across semiquavers. The focus of it on the intro is a cleverly arranged and gorgeous countermelody, which when coupled with the organ brings an almost Synthwave feel to the track – full of electronic lushness and 80s dystopia. Then, it reappears later on – this time still on rapid semiquavers but with a more unfussy melodic arrangement. It’s a clever piece of minor key arrangement, opening with a style and sound which transports you back several decades, bringing with it that ominous, 80s synth sound so often associated with dystopian Sci-Fi. But the then stripping of the track back to some barer yet still effective bones, punctuates Joggo’s performance and lyrics.

He’s a talented artist. His voice is effortless, sitting between that classic Roots singjay-meets singing sound and a Soul vocal. Joggo works up and down his pleasing range well, sitting between an upper baritone and higher tenor. He also displays nice elements of improv, with some neat vocal riffs and runs. Joggo provides some good rhythmic intricacy across the verses. His enunciation is clean and crisp, hitting every word and syllable well. But it’s his delivery and interpretation which impresses most. Joggo’s performance is full of dynamic light and share, appropriately placed syllable clipping and extension and the occasional, emotive vibrato. Lyrically, he has crafted something pertinent and engaging, too – as he laments the structural and systemic racism that still exists in society and under the system; despite protagonists telling us different.

Why It Doesn’t Matter is a moving and affecting track. Musically it’s been cleverly composed and arranged to convey the unsettling and haunting nature of the lyrics, with a delicious nod to Synthwave thrown in. Joggo is on point, with a compelling performance and equally compelling lyrics. And the whole thing is thought-provoking and brooding. Nicely done.