Junior Boys aren’t about to be rushed. The Canadian electronic project usually takes a few years between albums, but it’s worth the wait – each and every one has been exceptional.
The last we heard from Junior Boys was in 2016, with the release of ‘Big Black Coat’. Continually switching it up, sessions for a potential follow up led the group’s Jeremy Greenspan to explore sound in subtly different ways.
“A weird fact of the perception of sound is that you hear more accurately at lower levels of volume,” says Greenspan. “You can get into a space most intensely that way, and I realised that I wanted to make a pop record that lived in that space.”
Ongoing sessions led him to question: “What if I created an immersive environment of what I’ve named ‘peripheral music’, as it were, by recording huge amounts of material but layering it imperceptibly into as quiet a place as I can?”
New album ‘Waiting Game’ is out on October 28th – order it online – and we’re able to share the title track. An exercise in restraint, the bubbling electronics are capped, producing this odd but engaging feeling of tension.
The group’s pop instincts remain, but its rendered in an ultra-defined, minimalist fashion; melodies intertwined around electronic ambience, pushing and pulling in different directions.
“Resolutions ruin art,” comments Greenspan. “As with everything, the waiting is the best part, and so ‘Waiting Game’ is an “ode to Inactivity”. This song is about the intensity of emotion that comes in times of protracted postponement and expectation. Forced isolation can be cathartic and music can be a happy little home, a small island.”
We’re able to share the full video for ‘Waiting Game’, which echoes groundbreaking 1967 experimental film Wavelength, by Canadian artist Michael Snow.
Tune in now.
Junior Boys will release new album ‘Waiting Game’ on October 28th.
Photo Credit: Hollie Pocsai/Dilyara Mukhamedzhanova
