Drummer and keyboardist Chris Lacinack leads the cosmic funk-electronica-jam band Junko Beat. Lacinack also composed the seven convention-defying songs and instrumentals that pulse through Junko Beat’s Satirifunk. 

Funk is a major ingredient here, but there’s also much world beat in Junko Beat. Lacinack and his shifting cast of musicians and vocalists venture into prog rock, Middle Eastern and Indian sounds, Western classical music and reggae. More than once, Lacinack’s compositions stay on a single chord. Examples include “Lotus Rising,” an Indian music-style instrumental featuring pedal steel guitarist Dave Easley’s impression of a sitar. Easley fluently improvises above the static “Lotus Rising” harmony and a musical backdrop that includes Siguenon Kone’s jembe (a skin-covered goblet drum from West Africa). When the mystical, “Tomorrow Never Knows” vibe of “Lotus Rising” moves to a funk section, Easley easily adapts to a new landscape built on Jagon Eldridge’s riff-repeating baritone saxophone and Ian Cunningham’s wah-wah pedaled rhythm guitar.

“Control,” featuring Jane Brody’s vocals up front, contains the wistfulness of Mazzy Star singer Hope Sandoval and moody pop-rock of Depeche Mode. It’s another of the album’s one-chord, groove-based pieces. Brody also sings the reggae-styled “Words.” 

Will Snowden’s cello adds classical touches to “After Burn,” a Middle Eastern-style instrumental. The dark B section of “After Burn” derives much of its ominous character from Dave Ludman’s primal baritone sax. Snowden returns for “Voyage to Gold and Green,” playing dramatic cello pronouncements in a prog-rock setting featuring a spoken-word performance by Trea Swindell. Snowden is back again for another instrumental, “March 1827,” adding contrasting cello interjections to a funk jam.

Traceable though Lacinack’s influences are, the music he creates and confluence of styles within it puts Junko Beat in a world of its own.