No Joy – ‘Bugland’ album review: Ambience with teeth
If shoegaze was designed to take you out of the bustle of everyday perils and into a euphoric escape haze, then No Joy has excelled beyond our wildest dreams…
But what is shoegaze, really? More than a vague label attached to an even more ambiguous origin story, No Joy’s latest record, Bugland, proves that musical excellence and its accompanying sonic bliss reach far beyond the realm of easy descriptions and somewhere where it can all exist together on the shelves that made it possible in the first place; the spaces in between where it all quietens down and all that’s left is you.
Now the solo project of Jasamine White-Gluz, Bugland enlisted the help of producer Fire-Toolz, sparked by those moments of quiet, contemplative reflection, perfected during the literal and visceral experience of listening to early mixes on empty rural highways. “The collaboration really felt limitless,” said Fire-Toolz, in part due to White-Gluz’s newfound patience, both with creating art and looking inward in a way that felt entirely new; refreshing…cleansing.
Sonically (and lyrically), the record itself reflects these wide-open, expansive moments where the atmosphere never feels restricted by its own bucolic essence, where the lines sway outside of their own realm like waves crashing on the ocean; with focus, but not too much complacency that it becomes boring or remains still. The title track, for instance, surges forward with a pulsating beat, while ‘My Crud Princess’ tackles foundational indie-rock arrangements with the added shimmer of No Joy’s familiar dreamy quality.
Thus, there’s a constant flavour of distortion there that places the record somewhere surreal yet grounding, almost like White-Gluz knows exactly how to play with experimentation in a way that showcases the dynamics of the music itself, sometimes with clashing tropes that somehow still work because they pull you in rather than push you away. Like the sense of foreboding undercut by something more inexplicably upbeat in ‘Save the Lobsters’, and the almost 1990s-esque retro feel of ‘I hate that I forget what you look like’, where it feels simultaneously like watching The Beach while also sitting in a café at dawn.
But these contrasts, and their ability to feel entirely cohesive despite the dichotomies, make Bugland intriguing from start to finish. A kind of authenticity without constraints. “Rural living made me tune out the noise of the music biz and focus more inwards writing and taking my damn time,” said White-Gluz. “Also spending time doing things I didn’t have time to do when I was touring a lot – like learning about birds or wild swimming. I never want to put any music out that I am not fully committed to.”
Perhaps the real winner, then, is the closing track, ‘Jelly Meadow Bright’, where all these components come together in a relaxing, drawn-out swirl of ambient chords and twinkling notes, before it all flowers into something more explosive, more commanding, like watching the celestial shadows of nighttime turn into something that lingers between insidious delirium and complete liberation, almost The Cure-esque in a frenzied concoction of disassociative existential bliss.
There are definitely low points throughout the album, and songs that don’t immediately grip you or keep you looking for long enough to enjoy the adventure it’s offering. But for the most part, Bugland is a tight embrace that makes you want to see it through, even when the haze becomes a bit too much, or when it fails to offer enough to electrify the natural instinct to let go in ways No Joy was always known for. Beyond the simplicity of everything we thought we knew about shoegaze to begin with.
Defining track – ‘My Crud Princess’: The perfect signifier of the latest chapter of No Joy, emanating all facets that make White-Gluz one of the leading forces of contemporary shoegaze.
For fans of: Yelling into the void. In blissful resignation.
A concluding comment about shoegaze: It doesn’t actually exist. Not anymore. Not with No Joy at the helm, ripping out the rulebook.
Release date: August 8th, 2025 | Producer: Fire-Toolz | Label: Sonic Cathedral
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