Trust
Joyland
Arts & Crafts
Street: 03.04
Trust = Austra + Kontravoid / Pictureplane
It’s dark there, where you are. A faint, crystalline whimper hums over the pitch-black day-glo. There’s this neon-glowing earworm creeping out from somewhere in your head, and it’s eager for an inch of the latest fake-goth sensation. We’re in Joyland now—an all-nite, leather-laced gothic Disneyland. Here is what you’ve come for: the pulsing Vengaboys rhythms, the glistening, subzero synths, the duetting wicked witch yelp and baritone grumble of Robert Alfons—all to be had here in Joyland. There’s not a huge change in Alfons’ aggressive electronic style—maybe a few glassy synth patches here and there—so its a companion to 2012’s TRST in a fruitful way. The muscle is again in Alfons’ nylon wailing, which, when flexed, is more unnerving and more rewarding than on TRST—he’s a one-mouth gothic girl group. Welcome to Joyland. –Christian Schultz