Junior Boys – Begone Dull Care (Domino)
When is an electro record not an electro record? Probably, listeners of Junior Boys’ Begone Dull Care might answer, when its idiosyncratic brand of nonchalant ennui provokes, not the floor-filling ‘2003′ vibe elicited by some of it’s more rambunctious cousins, but a soporific, hypnotic foot-tapping.
Indeed, the retro haze achieved by Canadian duo Jeremy Greenspan and Matt Didemus on their third album seems like it was only realised via the discovery of some ancient synthesizers — such is the feeling of scrap-book polaroids and disco-chic cool achieved here.
The song writing is less articulate than on their previous two records, yet there is much on offer to please fans of indie-styled electro. The album is named after Norman McLaren’s 1950 pulsating, abstract animation and, while this explains the superb minimalism of Begone Dull Care, 1980s sexual groove is still its overture. “Work it baby, work it,” hushes Greenspan on the seductive Work.
Hazel, the standout, potential radio-botherer, is the only moment where Greenspan’s vocals raise to anything above a hushed aside. Elsewhere, The Animator conveys a similar marriage of laid-back disco and breezy, detuned, electronic pop which can only be described as Boards of Canada playing electro in a 1980s cocaine’n'cocktails bar.
The arpeggiated bass-lines, basic synth bleeps, and languor-inducing vocals are enough to keep heads nodding as much as anything served up by the ubiquitous Postal Service or the aberration that are MGMT. Although this is a few steps ahead in a watered-down genre, its lackadaisical approach may see it lose out to more obnoxious pretenders when vying for the attention of the dance-floor.
No comments:
Post a Comment