Joys Union Group

Another one seemingly out of nowhere today, the debut from Joys Union Group is a welcome respite from the daily punishment of life on this slowly simmering rock. Headed up by Neil Lord (Future Museums) and featuring members of Sungod and Uniform, the band’s bucolic record hovers in the headspace between New Age, Acid-Folk, Kosmiche, and ambient, with a nice dose of of psychedelic jazz smeared between the seams. Lord is no stranger to the cascading waves of luminescence, and Sungod have their sound soaked in the German Progressive reservoir, stacking up more than a few qualifications for a properly heady dive into the ether.

The record doesn’t lean into pastiche, though. While it pulls from a sense of the aforementioned genres, this isn’t your typical motorik bubbler with synth washes passing for psych transcendence. Humid streaks of jazz flute drip down the title track, fingerpicked strums tie up dusk-light sax on “Shimmering Surface.” The flutes return on “Laughter in the Sky,” though this time the damp ambience has been scuttled for a lighter touch, with feet in the New Age shimmer and pastoral folk fields simultaneously. The need to compartmentalize Boredom Euphoria seems to evaporate after a few listens. The record is effusive and diaphanous, it refuses to sit still. A record more at home on the breeze than anywhere else. Why fight it? A lovely debut that I hope becomes a the beginning of something more from these guys.

Support the artist. Buy it HERE.