No Joy - Motherhood (August 21, 2020) Album

username · Jul 29, 2020

Birthmark

Dream Rats

Nothing Will Hurt

Four

Ageless

Why Mothers Die

Happy Bleeding

Signal Lights

Fish

Primal Curse

Kidder

No Joy’s relentless sonic permutations are evidence of frontperson and principal songwriter Jasamine White-Gluz’s insatiable desire to grow. The Montréal-based project began a decade ago as e-mail-traded riffs; subsequent albums showcased a penchant for delay-saturated jangle, industrial distortion, and sludgey drones over disco beats. White-Gluz, feeling too reliant on her primary instrument, ditched the guitars and detoured to modular electronica for a 2018 EP composed with Sonic Boom (Spacemen 3’s Peter Kember).

For No Joy’s first full length in five years, White-Gluz took what she learned from synthesis, reincorporated guitars, and produced an album that is not a departure from No Joy’s early shoegaze, but a stylistically omnivorous expansion that ekes into trip hop, trance and nu-metal. Motherhood is the culmination of years composing outside of her comfort zone, and a return to DIY recording with a leveled-up expertise in production. Touring with genre-divergent artists has honed the band’s comfortably multifarious sound; No Joy picked up post-hardcore fans on the road with Quicksand, and ambient techno fans on gigs with Baths. “As long as people are open minded about music, they can hear different things,” explains White-Gluz, “Maybe because there are a lot of layers.”

“A lot of layers” may be an understatement. Lead single “Birthmark” combines the ‘90s dance rock of Republica with phasing fuzz à la Deftones’ brand of loud-quiet-loud. “Dream Rats” (featuring White-Gluz’s sister, Alissa, of deathcore supergroup Arch Enemy) manages to cram synth choir, blast beats, cowboy leads, and signal-jammed shredding into a radio-friendly three and a half minutes. “Nothing Will Hurt” melds detuned arpeggios, Berlin school synths, slapped bass, and seemingly infinite vocal facets. Throughout are loving nostalgic nods to the records White-Gluz adored on their release twenty years ago--Massive Attack, Sneaker Pimps, No Doubt.

Collaborative, exploratory fun hallmarks No Joy’s discography, and Motherhood is no exception. Bandmember Jorge Elbrecht (Ariel Pink, Sky Ferreira, Japanese Breakfast) returns in his role as co-producer and multi-instrumentalist. The band’s touring sound engineer Madeleine Campbell, who authors the Women In Sound zine, came on as engineer alongside Chris Walla (Death Cab for Cutie). Drummer Jamie Thompson (Islands, Esmerine) translated rhythmic ideas into hard-hitting performance, and brought in drum machines of his own. Frenetic shredder Tara McLeod (Kittie) makes her No Joy recorded debut, contributing not only guitars but banjos. Somehow plastic clarinet, scrap metal, skits, bongos and an EMS Putney made the mix. Songs went from laptop demos to labyrinthine recordings, tracked primarily at fellow Montrealers Braids’ Studio Toute Garnie. White-Gluz laid down the vocals at home, which allowed for experimentation with ethereal harmonies and shrouded ad libs.

White-Gluz hadn’t read Sheila Heti’s Motherhood when she wrote and titled this record, but when she did, the narrative parallels between the two projects were “like looking into a mirror.” “Will I regret not opening my insides out?” she sings on “Primal Curse,” during which she reads an optimistic letter her mom wrote as a teenager to her future kids. “Time is critical, and you have to make decisions that are extremely time sensitive and your body doesn’t care,” she explains. “It’s a lot of seeing myself through my mother’s experiences, and the physicalness of a body getting older.” The album also investigates the implications of her parents’ aging on her role as their child, as on the DJ-scratching wah groover “Four.”

Heti’s book’s central conceit is an open-ended pondering of whether dedication to writing is more significant than the desire to have children. No Joydoesn’t definitively answer this existential quagmire, either--how could anyone? Instead, Motherhood is a beautifully dense exploration that proves how thoughtful, thorough music can translate into art that is rich, vast and alive.

username · Jul 29, 2020

I'm very new to this project, just discovered them when "Four" dropped a couple weeks ago. I went back and listened to their debut so far, which scanned as pretty standard shoegaze stuff. These new singles are absolutely incredible though. "Nothing Will Hurt" has a bit of a New Order vibe to it, and "Four" plays as more of a pop track until it transitions into the doomy shoegaze of the second half. Very excited for this.

JM95 · Jul 30, 2020

Seems really interesting. I really like Four. The intro section develops into a darker, fuzzier sounding version of the intro to Airbag by Radiohead.

Crisp X · Aug 7, 2020

This album rules. Slightly different for them (her?), much more electronic and 90's alt centric than I expected but then I've missed the last few standalones or EPs.

username · Aug 7, 2020

Holding off on the leak still but I’ve been working through the discography recently. Wait to Pleasure is an incredible record but still nothing has topped the three singles from this for me.

username · Aug 10, 2020

username · Aug 23, 2020

This is so good

Leftandleaving · Aug 23, 2020

always thought this band was a post punk group a la iceage for some reason

Elder Lightning · Apr 15, 2021

New reimagined/orchestral EP plus a cover of Deftones' "Teenager" coming in May:

No Joy | Can My Daughter See Me From Heaven | Joyful Noise Recordings | Joyful Noise Recordings

username · Apr 15, 2021

Really curious about the reworked versions of “Four” and “Dream Rats”

JM95 · May 6, 2021

Cool that Nailah Hunter plays on this.

Elder Lightning · May 19, 2021

Full EP out today:

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No Joy - Motherhood (August 21, 2020) Album

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