Photo by Jodi Heartz & Alex Blouin
Jasamine White-Gluz, the principal songwriter of Canadian shoegaze/noise pop band No Joy, and Sonic Boom, aka Spaceman 3 co-founder Pete Kember, have joined forces for a new EP. The collaborative effort is simply titled No Joy/Sonic Boom and is due out March 30th via Joyful Noise.
Described in a press release as a “synth pop” EP with notes of “electronica, trip-hop and experimental noise,” the four-track effort came about from White-Gluz’s desire to explore music away from a four-piece “rock band.” Explaining what it was like working with the legendary Sonic Boom, she said,
“I wrote some songs that were intended for a full band and handed them off to Pete, who helped transform them. I barely knew how to use MIDI so I was just throwing him these experiments I was working on and he fine-tuned my ideas. There are barely any guitars on this album, because I was focused on trying to find new ways to create sounds.”
As a first listen to No Joy/Sonic Boom, the duo have shared a radio edit of “Obsession”. The EP version stretches over 11 minutes, but this six-and-a-half-minute cut does plenty to demonstrate how the pair work together. The first half is a disco track that’s been caught in the trance of electronic music, bumping and catchy yet lost in the echo of technology. It’s all overtaken by hypnotic pulses on the back third, something highlighted by the flashing neon visuals of the accompanying video. Check it out below.
Pre-orders for No Joy/Sonic Boom are available here. The cover art and tracklist can be found ahead.
No Joy/Sonic Boom Artwork:
No Joy/Sonic Boom Tracklist:
01. Obsession
02. Slorb
03. Triangle Probably
04. Teenage Panic
