Press release of the year, at least for my money, and definitely worth quoting in full: ?The music on ?1959? is very different from most earlier Soul-Junk releases. It?s got a similar na?ve production ear as heard on ?1950? & ?1951?, only with cut-up drum machine burps and strange hooky organs instead of tinny guitars and frantic drumbash.?

To present your new album like this, you must be a weathered veteran with a clear conception of things more important than your latest release. Indeed, Glen Galloway?s ?Soul-Junk? project can look back on a whole string of albums. The band has the habit of counting their albums from 1950 upwards. ?1959? must be their tenth album then.

The 23 tracks (titled ?Psalm 1? to ?Psalm 23?) on ?1959? definitely prove that Soul-Junk rule the field of chopped electronic Christian hip hop mixed with distorted hymns. ?Heap mercy upon me, lord, for I am weak.? Admittedly, I don?t know any other band that does the same thing. Prefuse 73 and Boom Bip might be musically close to some of the tracks here, but Soul-Junk?s lyrics and the snotty folk rock tracks (which dominate the second part of the album and which I imagine people to sing around campfires during community excursions) make this pretty idiosyncratic. Does that sound odd? It is. But not too bad, if you don?t mind the preaching. 23 ?Psalms? are too many stops on this path of light, though. Hope. Joy. Trust. Strength. Salvation. It?s all here. The artwork is horrible, though. 4/10 -- Jan-Arne Sohns (26 June, 2007)