Juno Point: Lost Along a River

Over the years, Australia has produced many acts of Juno Point’s ilk. Unassuming, nuanced, essentially bands that form the patchwork of people’s lives at one point or another.

At the turn of the century, radio station Triple J played a crucial role into getting these acts into people’s living rooms, however given the rapid decline in quality of the once vital artistic gateway, bands like Juno Point are still out there but seldom heard the way they once were.

This is a band that makes modest music for modest people. A timid outlet having spent decades immersed in records that changed the landscape of underground music.

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The four-piece, Nik Devenish (vocalis/ guitar), Steve Foster (guitar/ bass /piano/ organ/ vocals), Bon King (drums/ glockenspiel/ vocals), and Matt Grant (guitar/ bass) have featured in a raft of Sydney bands over the years (Ukiyo-e, The Cannanes, El Mopa and Tweezer), however their journey as Juno Point takes them out of the big smoke’s inner-suburbs, and on their debut album, Lost Along a River, you can feel the effects of new immediate surroundings.

Possessing a locality that has you reaching for the past, the band’s aesthetic isn’t a world away from the likes of fellow underrated Australian acts, Golden Fang and Michael Plater. That rumbling echo that occupies the margins between metropolitan and regional Australia (take the loner folk pedal-steel serenade of Surface Tension).

All told, Juno Point both sound and feel like a product from the outer reaches, and it’s largely down to the spacious arrangements that shape Lost Along a River. The back porch sway of opening track Nazare is the first example. Subtle, countrified echoes that were once mastered by underrated Melbourne veterans, Gersey.

Lined Up possesses a similar aura; a wary Sunday morning swoon, while the string-led A Little Rain, featuring vocalist Lou Peake, finds a gap that leads to the world of slowcore. This is where Until I Am Home Again awaits, and once again featuring Peake on vocals, Juno Point’s array of noodling, twangs and warm distortion nags like the spirit of a lost loved one.

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The best is yet to come. Firstly, with some Louisville homage in Red Mist. A less-is-more post-hardcore number somewhere between Slint and the song that Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy never wrote. Then there’s Skimming. The finest song Juno Point has delivered so far. Moving with a new elegance, Skimming is like being transported to a spiritual plane. It’s a song that provides that ‘goosebump moment’ all bands strive for within the studio walls.

Skimming is a wonderful end to a highly impressive debut album. The only problem with Lost Along a River is that it should be reaching far more people than it probably will. However, this shouldn’t deter the band, for many others in a world that incessantly strives to reject art will suffer a similar fate. For those devoted few, there’s little doubt that Juno Point are on the money here, and hopefully the same trend will continue in the future.

Lost Along a River is out now via Imagine River Records. Purchase from Bandcamp.