Junior Boys formed in 1999 in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Originally a duo of Jeremy Greenspan and Johnny Dark, Junior Boys created a sound that would bring together their influences. Years of collaboration resulted in a demo being produced, but there were so many rejections that they resigned themselves to being bedroom beat constructors. Soon after, Johnny Dark left the band to pursue other interests. Eventually KIN Records heard their demo at the end of 2002 and commissioned more work from remaining member Greenspan who hooked up with his engineer, Matt Didemus. He began again, writing more material and putting an album together.

Two albums later and we see the release of their first single ‘Hazel’ from their forthcoming third album, Begone Dull Care. This single plays host to five different versions of the track, three of those being remixes by Ewan Pearson.

'The Radio Edit', 'Album Version' and Ewan Pearson’s 'Extended Disco Edit' all sound pretty much the same to me. Slow and pretty lifeless, there doesn’t seem to be any energy behind this single. Okay, its full of synthesized beats and electrofunk riffs but really can we wind the record up and get it moving?

Moving on to Ewan Pearson’s 'House Mix' and things start warming up. The beat picks up and you can feel the energy begin to flow on this track. Unfortunately, Greenspan’s vocals are still going on about how "it’s a hard wait…yeah!"

Ewan Pearson’s 'House Dub' is the best track on this single. It’s upbeat, lively and better still there are no monotonous vocals to have to listen to. This was definitely a hard wait to get to the last track on the single.

4

Helena Rea