Joys Union Group - Boredom Euphoria (Trouble In Mind)

WhaT Your Ears Say & The Cover Looks Like

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What We Say

Not sure how I missed this one but thanks to Aquarium Drunkard for tipping me off about this contentment oozing fusion of New Age, “New Weird America”-esque psychedelia", meditative third eye jazz & off the grid, pastoral kosmische from Joys Union Group for Trouble in Mind. It's a beautiful thing.

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What The Release Notes Say

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. 
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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
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

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If You Like Joys Union Group You Might Like The New Age of New Age Playlist

You can stream The New Age of New Age Playlist on Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Youtube & Soundcloud