Canadian shoegazers No Joy release their long-awaited fifth album Bugland on August 8. Now the solo project of Jasamine White-Gluz, it’s their first new material for five years and is released via Sonic Cathedral (UK / EU) and Hand Drawn Dracula (ROW).
Bugland finds White-Gluz teaming up with co-producer and renowned future fusionist Fire-Toolz (aka Angel Marcloid) to create the aural equivalent of a late-’80s i-D magazine front and back cover, with a non-problematic National Geographic hiding within.
The album was, at least in part, inspired by White-Gluz’s move to a more rustic area of Quebec, something that also explains the gap between albums. The most recent No Joy release was 2020’s Motherhood.
“The wait wasn’t intentional,” White-Gluz explains, “but I think rural living made me tune out the noise of the music biz and focus more inwards, writing and taking my damn time.”
“The collaboration really felt limitless,” says Fire-Toolz, the inspired choice for co-producer, who also offers other sonic additions, dances, noises and mysticism. “I could easily relate to it because Jasamine and I liked a lot of the same music, and I was able to be creative in ways that were freeing as if I was making my own album.”
Both spent days driving on empty rural highways listening to the mixes, and it reflects in the final album. With an open ear, many “influence eggs” can be detected by the listener. Opener ‘Garbage Dream House’ is Zooropian without any of U2’s ego baggage, while epic closing track ‘Jelly Meadow Bright’ manages to meld the out of control saxophone from The Stooges’ Fun House with both Deerhunter and also the chill buoyancy of a high-end spa.
Touching on respected, familiar genres and sounds while attempting to advance one’s own isn’t easy, but Bugland manages to. What genre is it anyway? Is it even shoegaze when it could live happily on a shelf next to Boards of Canada and Autechre? The right answer is ‘yes’. What a lovely shelf it would be as well.
Bugland is a testament to White-Gluz’s evolution and her ability to channel a wide variety of tastes into something cohesive that can descend into fine-tuned chaos, then out of that chaos with ease.
No Joy play the following dates in the UK this Autumn
October 15 – Manchester – YES Basement
October 17 – London – Moth Club
October 18 – Chelmsford – Hot Box
October 19 – Coventry – Just Dropped In
October 20 – Glasgow – Glad Cafe
October 21 – Leeds – Headrow House
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