Junior Boys at Pepperjack Café

Hamilton has proven itself quite capable of producing a diverse array of musical performers. Many local acts have come to define their respective genres. And yet the most popular -- pop music, itself -- is the one area in which Hamilton’s music scene remains relatively obscure. The city has come to be known for its noise, art-rock, hardcore, drone, indie, and various other forms of good independent music. But a Top-40 hit has been largely elusive for the Steel’s musicians.

Enter the Junior Boys, who produce synth-heavy pop with sentimental lyrics and a vocal presence that has more than a passing nod-and-a-wink to Faith-era George Michael. If it weren’t for the digital complexities in their production, you might assume their music to be a post-New Wave revivalist act. In that difference, however, can be found the true pleasure of their music. Like the decade’s other great electronic music producers, Junior Boys realize that a subtle tempo shift, a beat seemingly misplaced, or a glitch made rhythmic are key to bringing out a sense of sensuality in machine-based music.

The rapid success of 2004's Last Exit was precipitated largely thanks to the online music scene, as critics and bloggers devoured some of the freshest beat production of that year’s pop music revival. It was no surprise that Junior Boys embarked on extensive overseas touring for the year following the first full-length.

Despite the band’s hipster-name-drop status, recognition remains somewhat elusive in this country. Perhaps it is mainstream Canada’s predilection for mind-numbing, recycled bar rock and painful, faux-sexuality teen-pop that’s keeping Junior Boys off the radio.

Junior Boys co-founder and principal sonic architect Jeremy Greenspan reflects on the genesis of this year’s critically-lauded album So This Is Goodbye. “A lot of the new album deals with travel, and the feelings of disorientation, etc, that go along with that. I guess some of that has to do with all of the travelling that we did on the first record. Touring has obviously become a big part of our lives and all of those experiences are bound to be reflected in the new music that we've been making.”

This last statement brings to mind how pop music responds to the world which consumes it. Are creative people destined to a sense of responsibility to society? More importantly, does it even matter to have a “meaning” behind pop music other than the fact that a given group of people like it for a given amount of time?

“Pop music is ultimately an incredibly malleable art form,” Greenspan muses. “The thing that is best about making pop music is that there are no rules. All that is important is that it moves people, in some way, and that people want to listen to it over and over, and beyond that a musician is free to experiment as much as possible. That can be extremely liberating.”

Typical for musicians who compose in a studio setting, the Junior Boys live experience has evolved significantly since the first tour. “I think we've become much more comfortable as a live unit. We take playing live far more seriously than we used to, even though we still think of ourselves as a sorta "studio band". It is far more interesting for us now that we have added a third member (Dave Foster on drums) to our live lineup. Dave adds a lot to the shows.” The addition of a live drummer should prove particularly invigorating to the rather introspective direction that the new music has taken.

Pepperjack Café, the venue which is hosting the band’s performance on December 26, is no stranger to audiences who seek danceable performers. Even with a packed room, there is space to move if one is so inspired. Greenspan is candid about his appreciation of the local scene: “The last time we played in Hamilton, we had a great time. It was the first show that we did with our new lineup and we were pretty nervous. Luckily the show was a big success, and hopefully the next show will go just as well.” Rising scene-stealer Gary Buttrum will be on-hand with one of the better DJ mixes being produced these days, providing yet another reason to attend early and leave well into the night.

MP3: Junior Boys - So This Is Goodbye

Joanna Newsom - Ys

Joanna Newsom
Ys
[Drag City, 2006]


The success of Joanna Newsom’s 2004 album The Milk-Eyed Mender tore the pixie-voiced harpist from the warm yet fiercely overprotective clutches of “outsider music” into the fickle puritanism of that year’s folk-revisionist indie mainstream. If that sentence seems a wordy introduction, feel free to avoid Newsom’s new release. Ys is a baroque, lyrically-dense album which revels in the self-placating joy of wordsmithing.

Over the course of five long tracks, lushly orchestrated by Van Dyke Parks and mixed by Jim O’Rourke, she examines many of the triumphs and platitudes which come to determine human relationships. On “Monkey & Bear”, for example, the mutually-dependent titular couple escape from a farm only to learn about the harsh realities of life without a food hand-out. They find success as entertainers as one of them manipulates the other; the latter realizes the narcism inherent in this acceptance, and ultimately dissolves the relationship.

It is quite interesting that fans of instrumental music have taken an interest in Newsom’s output. Her lyrical performance is indeed quite acrobatic, and much like Bjork’s is definitely an acquired taste. However, those with a sense of adventure will want to explore this satisfyingly dense album.

MP3: Joanna Newsom - Emily

Leafcutter John - The Forest and the Sea

Leafcutter John
The Forest and the Sea
[Staubgold, 2006]

London-based John Burton has been producing interesting variations of traditional electronic music for several years. Not happy with the limitations of either analog or digital sound sources, under the Leafcutter John moniker Burton has released several albums featuring his uniquely introspective amalgam of groove-based and electro-acoustic music. Unlike contemporaries Four Tet or Matmos, Leafcutter John preferred abstraction to propulsive grooves, which perhaps explains his status as a peripheral collaborator to the mainstream of electronic music.

Soon into the pastoral eloquence of album-opener “Let It Begin”, subtly metallic drones begin to add a dirt-ridden subtext. Likewise, in “Maria in the Forest”, narratively-suggestive location recordings are gradually transformed into digital noise leading to an abruptly interruption by more folk-inspired musings on acoustic guitar. Propulsive rhythms issue from the inky depths of drone partway through “In the Morning”. A piano and bell cascade into digital abstraction, only to return as lullaby “Seba”. All of the tracks demonstrate an obsession with the fractal-like textures created by acoustic instruments, and Burton allows the listener enough time to breathe everything in.

The Forest and the Sea is an attempt to tell a story; this gesture is not alien to either electroacoustic or folk music. Leafcutter John has proven quite adept at sculpting with the temporal nature of sound. With this new release, he demonstrates that what is normally a cold and cerebral aesthetic can be a bodily experience as well.

MP3: Leafcutter John - Seba

check out his software, which lets you play in a sound-sculpted forrest

gay, constitutionally so

Thankfully the Conservative motion to reopen the same-sex marriage debate was rejected by Parliament this week. Frankly, there is little that the government can do to restrict people from marrying each other, regardless of sexual orientation. Judges throughout the country have upheld the notion that the right to marry a loved one is constitutionally-bound. Under Canadian law, the only way to circumvent the Charter of Rights is to use the Notwithstanding clause.

There is an important legal distinction here, however. Even if the government were to invoke the clause and remove from homosexuals the right to marry, that revocation would still be an acknowledgement that homosexuals possess the legal right to marry. The government would then have to justify the reason for removing a fundamental human right from a particular group of its citizenry. Naturally, that justification falls apart when all you have are religious doctrine and talk along the lines of, "well, that's just the way it should be".

It's time to put this issue behind us. Hopefully this latest rejection of a motion supporting intolerant, old-world attitudes of man-woman perfect family bliss means that we can ask our government to take a harder look at issues which are more important for the country.