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Joys Union Group is a new Texas group that aims to blur the lines between new age, jazz and “New Weird America”-esque psychedelia and Trouble In Mind is honored to unveil “Boredom Euphoria”, their stunning debut album. The group is led by Neil Lord (Future Museums) alongside Michael C Sharp (Uniform, Sungod, Impalers), Kristine Reaume (Sungod) and Dailey Toliver (Molly Burch). The album was mixed by Ben Greenberg & mastered by Andrew Weathers.
While the album still skirts the boundaries of the ambient & kosmiche zones Lord is known for is his solo Future Museums project, Joys Union Group fully feels like an organic, living entity, rather than a sequence of electronic signals; heady, deep, jammy & blissful. Leading off with the serene “Cloud Paint”, the album arrives like a spring sunrise as shafts of light peek through, heading next into the title track “Boredom Euphoria”, with its percussive swing driving under guitar & key splashes & embellished by a shimmering, cascading flute melody. “Shimmering Surface” & “Portrero” saunter forward next, both exuding the full weight of the Texas sun over their acoustic melancholy, feeling like an addendum to Bruce Langhorne’s mythic “Hired Hand” soundtrack. “Fragile Chrysalis” kicks off side two, with its drums swells & horn punctuations sounding like Electric Miles jamming with Bardo Pond. “Laughter In the Sky” is a mellower affair, with the flute returning to season the song’s lilting melody. “Fig” has echoes of the more studious outings from the post-rock era, while closer “Wiser” ambles home pleasantly atop a buzzing electric guitar lick that feels like the natural throughline from Fripp’s guitar work with Eno.
credits
released January 20, 2022
Neil Lord: guitar, bass, Rhodes piano, synth, saxophone, programming
Michael C. Sharp: drums, Rhodes piano, synth, guitar
Kristine Reaume: flute
Dailey Toliver: guitar, piano, Wurlitzer, harpsichord
Engineered by Michael C. Sharp & Neil Lord
Mixed by Ben Greenberg
Mastered by Andrew Weathers
Original artwork by Rich Cali
Type & layout by James M. Mitchell
supported by 80 fans who also own “Boredom Euphoria”
Such good healing energy on this album. Perfect for recovering from surgery. Thoughtful, plaintive, free of kitschy standard rock moves.
Probably still good without the surgery. ;) spencer_huggies
DC experimental duo Requiem and UK cellist Simon McCorry make ambient psychedelia together that traffics in subtlety rather than bombast. Bandcamp New & Notable Jul 27, 2021