Track Review
Junior Boys, the Canadian electro duo consisting of Jeremy Greenspan and Matt Didemus, are back with Underneath the Moon, the first single from their upcoming album The Gore – the follow-up to 2022’s Waiting Game. The album reportedly centres around the grief experienced by Greenspan after losing both his father and a close childhood friend. Sonically, The Gore is said to be a “noisy, messy record” shaped by horror, sci-fi and experimental films. Underneath the Moon, specifically, is inspired by the 2022 horror film Skinamarink, with the song being made using old tape-loop techniques and a vintage Tascam tape machine.
This minimalist dance track is the perfect Halloween tie-in, with its atmospheric, sinister sound effects and pulsing, circular synth bass. The vocals are also pretty eerie, though they remain largely unintelligible throughout the track, never really taking centre stage.
Lyrically, there is very little to this song, just a few lines, and even those are mostly unintelligible. Something about not wanting to fall asleep and just lying awake. With the pounding drums on this track, that won’t be too much of a problem.
The track builds and develops in a very satisfying way, pulling you in bit by bit, from the light hi-hats present at the beginning of the track to eventually morphing into a very unlikely floor-filler.
Like a lot of Junior Boys songs, the track is on the longer side, clocking in at almost seven minutes, but this allows it time to develop. At no point does Underneath the Moon feel like it’s dragging. The track builds and builds until a very abrupt ending.
In summary, Underneath the Moon has me very excited for the upcoming release of The Gore in February.