Dazzlingly stylish synth-rock
Who they?
Le Junk is Shimon Joseph, multi-instrumentalist musician and producer with a penchant for dazzling drum machine grooves, thrillingly live bass action and dry, clever lyrics delivered with a deadpan nonchalance. Imagine beats from Mantronix, bass by Les Rhythmes Digitales, and Nitzer Ebb or Finitribe on frontman duties, only all done by one man.
Why Le Junk?
His recently dispatched debut single ‘Rich Romance’ is a finely-honed explosion of flailing cowbells, thumping kicks and distorted bass funk. The lyrics are sharp too, taking a vicious side swipe at the affluent but tasteless idiots who started to invade east London’s more creative areas a few years back, changing them forever. “I used to be based in Hackney Wick and there were illustrators, artists, sound designers, a whole load of different creative people working there, it was a bit of a hub,” he explains. “But of course, the developers came in and the place is totally unrecognisable.
Tell us more…
There’s a stack of new tunes waiting to follow ‘Rich Romance’, the soaring synth-fest ‘Bad Stuff’ numbering among our favourites. They’re awaiting a final polish from co-producer Dan White of Buff Records, a vital part of the process for a musician more used to bands and session work. “We worked on the kick drum on ‘Rich Romance’ to get it sounding really punchy,” recalls Joseph, “it was originally done on an 808 – well, one of the recreations – but we ended up layering about eight different sounds, sub-frequencies, just to give it that extra punch.” He’s been itching to take Le Junk into live action with a fully live six piece set-up. “I’m inspired by that old footage of Kraftwerk where they’re playing drum pads that look like they’ve made themselves out of tin foil,” he laughs, “and Suuns are another band that seem able to perform a version of their recordings completely live. That’s the kind of thing I’m aiming for.
‘Rich Romance’ is out on Naked Superstar
