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The Junior Boys from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada are made
up of lead singer
Jeremy Greenspan and producer/composer Matt Didemus.
Their latest disc So This Is Good-Bye demonstrates eclectic
sessions of digitized notes perforating the vocals with bleeps,
pops, ba-loops, slapsticks, plunks, and bouncing notes that are
melodically cabled and sounding something like a score from The
Blue Man Group's show in Las Vegas. It is music composed from
a great deal of imagination that originates from outside of the
box, and has an anime glyptic, which give the music terms personification.
Their corrugation of electroclash elements, liquefied synths,
and buds of beaded futuristic cumulus has factions of Ladytron
and Sweden's prog rock trio Thieves Like Us with wisps
of programming lineaments congruent to The Secret Handshake.
The digital lagoons on "Double Shadow" have an animatronic
personage, which gives the Junior Boys' robotic glyptics a friendlier
feel. The combination of synth effects and slapping drum strokes
have an avant-garde composure that can be related to The Keep
and Talk Talk, but the Junior Boys are singled out from
the clique with vocals that glide over experimental jottings giving
the songs a melodic pane like on "The Equalizer." They
also infuse droplets of abstract imagery like on "First time"
which resonate with the backbeats of handclaps giving the song
more rhythmic propulsion.
A Pet Shop Boys-style stargazing can be correlated to
"Count Souvenirs," and the bubbling trombone midi-file
types on "In The Morning" produce an anxious tempo along
electronica lintels while scraping and trickling sound sensations
push into the formations. The empyreal wavelengths on "So
This Is Good-Bye" has a likeness to the willowy whispers
of San Diego's the Rise Of The Speedmen. The sensory bleeps
and clamps on "Like A Child" has innocence in the tones
while the heavy beats on "Caught In A Wave" prolix weighty
winged staves and heavy clouds in the strophes. Their remake of
Frank Sinatra's song "When No One Cares" is solemn
with the music making inflections corresponding to the indentations
of the vocal melody. The final track "FM" is a soft
toned melody with fluid sequences, tender whispers and hubs of
mellow esplanades.
The electroclash simplex emerged as a fade but has demonstrated
staying power. The Junior Boys have moved the underground club
genre into budding trails of mainstream pop while maintaining
hardcore tenets of the movement, which began as a derivative of
melodic pop profusion's. The Junior Boys have befriended both
melodic pop and the classes of experimental and avant-garde amalgamations
on their latest disc So This Is Good-Bye, forming a hybrid
that pleases parties of all factions.
-Susan Frances
Tracklisting:
1. Double Shadow
2. The Equalize
3. First Time
4. Count Souvenirs
5. In The Morning
6. So This Is Good-Bye
7. Like A Child
8. Caught In A Wave
9. When No One Cares
10. FM
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