JoyCut

JoyCut is an italian indie rock/electronic group whose sound is heavily driven by percussion and effected noise. They focus on the dichotomy between elemental/tribal drumming and synth/electronic work. Through this disunion they paint imagery of the struggle between technology, nature and man. Relying on tonality, found objects and simple lyricism, JoyCut tells their tale through a vivid and lively performance. -

JoyCut fans can give themselves a pat on the back. The Italian dark-wave/electronic post-rock group is MTV Iggy’s Artist of the Week! What better way to celebrate than to dance it out along to the slow building groove of “Wireless” - Alexis Stephens

Widely regarded as one of the most influential DJs in America and one of music's most respected tastemakers, Nic Harcourt served as KCRW music director and host of Morning Becomes Eclectic for 10 years. Nic can now be heard weekdays on KCSN LA's morning show. - Nic Harcourt

If you like progrock, there's no way on Earth you can pass by JoyCut's PiecesOfUsWereLeftOnTheGround. The group is Italy's premiere dark wave ensemble, and they bring together the best aspects of Kraftwerk, John Foxx circa Metamatic, Tangerine Dream, krautische electronique, techno, Neu, traces of Krister Linder (Metropia), and that kinda thing. The CD's almost entirely instrumental, atmospheric as hell, sinister but crossed with an existentially puzzling sense of satisfaction, even an abstracted happy delirium, cosmic and irresistible, often almost dancey…if you're a peripatetic robot. The promo lit tells me JoyCut's a quartet but the Italian Wiki says they're a trio (Pasquale Pezzillo, Gael Califano, and Giannicola Maccarinelli) playing keyboards, guitar, percussion, voice (on one cut as straight-out singing, on another as a vocodery presence utilized like an instrument), and other whatnots.

Regardless, the band creates ringing environments in waves of rolling sound, sometimes metronomic, other times rising and falling like inky waters in subterranean pools, then hurtling like a juggernaut or bullet train towards the skies. My favorite track is Dark Star, sounding like something Peter Baumann might've written after his masterful Transharmonic Nights, following a mug of Starbuck's best triple espresso chased with sopors and then a long bout of watching futuristic dystopia movies. The mournful 1-D, the track with Pezzilo singing, is the most pronouncedly cinematic, though much of Pieces of Us would readily accompany flicks by Luc Besson, Guillermo Toro, and likeminded fantastes.

This is music that one can never get enough of. I was tremendously elated when Beak arrived on the scene, though that ensemble is more in the old Cluster and pre-Autobahn Kraftwerk mode. JoyCut hales from the same musical hinterlands but with a vastly more effulgent canvas, kind of a self-contained art museum whereas Beak is decidedly more austere, a whacked-out van der Rohe as opposed to JoyCut's Gaudi by way of Ernst. Gary Numan would have been a lot more interesting had he kept with his early inclinations and cleaved more adhesively to what's presented here. OMD did and put out two epochal albums, then went pop-prog on us. Therefore, sacrifice to the eldritch gods that these paisans make their mark touring North America in the coming year but also that they don't get tempted by the Whores of Babylon (European and American capitalism) and start cranking out chart confections. Icehouse and Psychedelic Furs, and alas even OMD and Foxx (and, to an extent, Japan), were more than enough when it came to that sort of thing. - Mark S. Tucker

The first track on Italian duo JoyCut’s Pieces of Us Were Left on the Ground album, “Wireless,” is unbelievably sprightly, uplifting, and beautiful. It’s more ambitious than the music of most bands on today’s minimal-/dark-wave revival circuit, its ornate textures and orchestral swells lending the song almost a classical grandeur—but it’s also kind of a red herring. Whereas many newer outfits working in this territory only capture the surface tics of the early-’80s genre or add too much melodic sugar to the sound, JoyCut keep the mood suitably overcast (except for that anomalous opening cut) and the instrumentation interesting and complexly layered throughout the album’s 15 tracks. They also explore the sort of post-punk bleakness that glum English bands Joy Division and the Sound pioneered 30-plus years ago, but JoyCut’s forte remains the downward-sloped synth jam for teary-eyed dancing. With Dionvox and the Spider Ferns. - Dave Segal

You can usually count on SXSW to have a little something for everyone. For the goths and the shoegazers, they’ve invited Italian dark-wavers JoyCut to grace the stage with ghoulish-yet-playful post-punk that sounds eerily just like heaven. And since touring with American indie royalty like Modest Mouse and Sebadoh, it’s about time they caught on in the States. - Suzy Exposito and Alexis Stephens

Sounds Like: A future where robots and humans share organic meals and feelings of hope

This Italian outfit floats gracefully along a tightrope between experimental and accessible, mixing found sounds with real-life instrumentation over an electronic bedrock. The vibe is murky, yet oftentimes ecstatic — dark wave that isn’t so downtrodden; post-rock with room for exploring ideas about time, space and self.

Their latest offering is PiecesOfUsWereLeftOnTheGround, written that way specifically to serve as a calligram representative of its intent. The LP, which is their third, is quite lengthy: 15 songs in all, many of them longer than four minutes. “DarkStar” actually clocks in at 8:18, shifting from gloomy, glistening moments to the doom of deep drums before triumphant flashes of guitar announce its finale. Another track on the longer side is “Neverland,” a rapturous number that melds vocals with synth to a hypnotic, nearly unrecognizable level. There’s a bit of a new wave vibe to “Drive” — like a vocals-free version of A-ha’s “Take on Me” written in the year 2050. JoyCut’s playful futurism is at its height on “ChildrenInLove,”though. It’s utterly danceable, but still off-kilter in terms of structure and sounds employed. Could this be where the pipes, gas cans, aluminum sheets and other odd items were used? It’s hard to tell, because the band blends them so well in practical use.

JoyCut’s progressive thinking isn’t confined only to their sonic aesthetic. Physical copies of their album are made from recycled products, both the disc and the booklet. Some of the LP was even recorded in solar-powered studios. They complement their live performances with projections of visual art, as well as a cut-out of the fictional character they’ve been cultivating their image around: Mr. Man. What that signifies is up for interpretation — just like their experimental material. - Jhoni Jackson

"Not a whole lot is known about these three blokes, but this sort of mysterious allure only adds to their new (um, it’s addicting) 15-song set. Fans of A Place to Bury Strangers, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Editors, Massive Attack and Mew should warm quickly to JoyCut’s blissful cacophony of ticks, werps and blips layered among guitars, percussion, pianos and hushed vocals." - MacKenzie

"Next time the DEA will bring up to date the more addictive drugs list, I am making a petition on change.org in order to place at the first entries pistachios and JoyCut" - Claudio Delicato

"Truly a good record. Good because complex but accessible, mature and fresh, intimate and intense, with charming reminds from Joy Division, to Bauhaus, from Gary Numan to Mogwai. We are speaking about ... flavours, since JoyCut's album has a personal sound, that can rely on a warm, human and emotionally moving electronic - we could quote Sigur Ros, but the compact uses a different sensitiveness. A standing-ovation record." - NA

"An interstellar journey, almost completely instrumental, the confirmation that a band is able to evolve freely, without misrepresent its origins, its style, its own conception of music composing." - Emanuele Tamagnini

"Electronic walls and tribal beats. Dizzy ascents and loose descents into darkness. Being unpersonified while searching for human emotions... An ambitious record, refined and irresistible. Mission accomplished. Vote 8" - Fabio Guastalla

“They are too good to be true, the JoyCut are very italian but their sound is british to the bone, on the same line of continuity between Joy Division, Cure and Interpol….” - Bizarre

“A sonic wave between the Cure and Bloc Party pervades the album of the very italian JoyCut since the very first track,13 songs that draw the parable of an epic and claustrophobic rock-of-the-suburbs with ecological implications.” - Pier Angelo Cantù

“Listening to this work is a musical journey with no stumbling, linear and immediate to the attentive ear it soon reveals itself as dense and elegant ... We also applaud the strong environmental sensitivity of the band”... - Gianluca Gandini