Writer's Note: Joi has been one of my favorite artists since she debuted in 1994 with the groundbreaking Pendulum Vibe. Both on stage and in the studio, Joi continuously brings her own special brand of excellence to the rocking soul scene. This piece was written originally last year for Wax Poetics #42 and it's my pleasure to share it with you now.

Joi

Amoeba Cleansing Syndrome

In the 1990s, Atlanta was a hothouse of post-new jack swing R&B. Yet, while most producers were content making safe Black pop for the masses, Dallas Austin wanted to be an auteur. While he’d constructed platinum selling singles for ABC, TLC, and Boyz II Men, the wicked keyboardist had grown-up admiring the artistry of Prince’s cyberfunk manifesto 1999, wanted to make a difference.

“You’ve got to do what people want you to do before you can do what you want to do,” Austin said in 1992. Two years later, he introduced the world to glam singer Joi. A lipstick liberator in the age of prefab divas, her 1994 debut The Pendulum Vibe was a wonderful introduction to an arty funk-rock aesthetic.

Still, it was Joi’s sophomore joint Amoeba Cleansing Syndrome that was supposed to set the world on fire. “My vision was simple,” she explained in 1997. “I want to do funky, ground-breaking stuff.” Although Joi, who has sung with OutKast and Curtis Mayfield, had no problem referring to herself as R&B, her style was as influenced by the sci-fi imaginary of Barbarella and P-Funk as she was by midnight wail of Gladys Knight.

http://blackadelicpop.blo...drome.html

I loved her first album! I also really got into "Starkitty's Revenge" I had hoped her career would take off, but it seemed to have fallen flat after getting with Lucy's Pearl.

Joi's "luck" in the music business has been interesting 2 say the least.

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I'm still a fan! I remember hearing in the mid 90's that she had this album circulating, with the members of Fishbone as her backing band --and a friend finally hipped me to the "Amoeba Cleansing Syndrome"! She was like Betty Davis, ahead of her time - fitting that she covered a Davis track on the album ("If I'm In Luck I Might Get Picked Up")...

a few tracks from the disc:

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