Quick Before it Melts

Wednesday 08 April 2009

Parallel lines

It only take a few bars before you recognize the spare, meticulous sound of Hamilton, Ontario’s Junior Boys.  Taking the approach that sometimes, less truly is more, Jeremy Greenspan and Matthew Didemus have been building a reputation as two of electronic music’s true visionaries.  Like other noted electro duos Daft Punk and Pet Shop Boys, Junior Boys have developed an unmistakable sound built on precise beats, clean sounds, and breezy atmospherics that give their melodies and beats room to get up and move, or saunter sleekly around the room.  Sleek, sexy, and very human.

Junior Boys are following up their Polaris Music Prize nominated sophomore album So This Is Goodbye with a new album, Begone Dull Care, named after Norman McLaren’s 1949 animated short film for the National Film B0ard of Canada.  McLaren masterfully creates an abstract representation of the film’s accompanying jazz piano score that flickers from frame to frame in perfect syncopation to the music.  There’s clearly parallels to be drawn to Junior Boys own attention to fine detail in their work and the film.  Begone Dull Care is out now on Domino Records, and the band will be out on the road until mid-May, with stops across Canada and the U.S., including a set at Coachella on April 18.

For those interested, I decided to embed Norman McLaren’s original film below.

MP3: Junior Boys “Hazel”
Facebook: Junior Boys
Myspace: Junior Boys
Buy: Junior Boys Begone Dull Care

by J. Di Gioia | Comments Off

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 8th, 2009 at 10:00 am and is filed under MP3, video. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.