Jasamine White-Gluz has a voice for the best of times and the worst of times. The singer and guitarist of Canadian psychedelic shoegaze band No Joy has an ethereal, breezy voice that reads as laid-back or apathetic depending on the lighting. The thin line between those two attitudes is the subject of the group's surreal new video for "Everything New."
Directed by interdisciplinary artist Jason Harvey, the video opens with a burnt-out rock band giving a half-hearted performance, so tired at the end of the night that they throw their trash out the van window as they roll away from the venue. From their exhaustion and lack of self-awareness is born a sentient litter creature that discovers its own existence and basic carnal urges in the same ecstatic moment. Over both scenes wind White-Gluz's nebulous vocals, sounding like a nap and a new day all at once.
It's a silly concept, but the dichotomy addressed is real. One person's breaking point is another's revelation. No Joy, whose sound has always bounced between harder punk and softer beach pop, knows a thing or two about duality and being many things at once. The quartet describes this video as grappling with "the duality of human existence." Such a lofty mission statement could only be paired with such strange, and strangely poignant, visuals.
No Joy's new album,More Faithful, comes out Tuesday via Mexican Summer.
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