Joy Dimmers: Red Will

The term supergroup feels very ‘industry’, and hearing it just makes you want to take a bath in bleach. You can just imagine some coked-up marketing clown from the late ’80s conjuring it up, and for the three decades the term has adorned columns and press releases alike. Hell, even today the term is used, but like the record executives from their ivory towers; like the shiny, soulless studios; like the drug dealer on speed dial. It all feels a bit ancient and for those frozen in time.

‘Collaboration’ feels far more homely, and for sound worlds such as the ones talked about through these pages, it’s far closer to the truth, at least. Since lockdown, whether it be an opportunity to expand or playing the narrow field ahead (perhaps both), not only has the rate of collaborations grown exponentially, but also they have provided some of the best results from the new music sphere.

And here is another in what is quite the bolt from the blue. Featuring Wrong Speed Records alumni, Joy Dimmers are All Structures Align’s Tim Ineson (vocals), Sweet Williams’ Thomas House (guitars), Bilge Pump / Objection’s Neil Turpin (drums), and Ivan the Tolerable’s Oli Heffernan (bass).

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The four have been working together on various things over the last couple of years, with Ineson and Heffernan contributing to the recent Sweet Williams remix series. Furthermore, Heffernen and Turpin joined Tim and his brother Adam as full-time members of All Structures Align prior to the band’s 2023 release, Cut the Engines.

While much of Joy Dimmers’ debut album, Red Will, feels like a Wrong Speed Records compilation for new ears, it’s the subtleties born from the above-noted projects that makes this a fresh take on slowcore.

Heffernan’s recent Ivan the Tolerable outings have been noticeably more meandering opposed to the fractured jazz-inspired assaults of the past. House has also cultivated new ground, underlined by last year’s wonderful self-titled album that is arguably Sweet Williams’ best, while A.S.A.’s arrival in 2022 has been the shining beacon for the U.K. underground; the Ineson brothers making every post a winner.

That doesn’t change on Red Will, starting with Salt Air Slow. A song shining with metallic build-ups and choruses that ache and groan with the kind of tonality that draws a tear from the eye. So good, it makes you wonder whether Joy Dimmers peak too early.

Said to have been in the works over the last three years, the sparseness of following track, Pale Blue Square, feels like a product of back and forth tinkering between Ol’ Blighty and House’s Zaragoza base. This is abstract splendour that is all about asking more questions rather than finding any answers.

Meanwhile, Some Division is at the other end of the spectrum. Like a lightning bolt that parts the storm clouds, Some Division is a mesmeric number that builds with the kind of rhythms that are inspired by krautrock; a methodical, motorik thurm dizzying you into hypnosis.

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And remaining in that state, the band unfurl a song like Stare. This is slowcore around the campfire, nestled in the space between Neil Young’s back porch guitar sketches and the gritty core of Codeine.

On closing track, So Uniform, it sees Joy Dimmers enter the matrix of House’s Sweet Williams, and if you were to compare the band to any of the associated projects, then it would probably be this. Similar to the Sweet Williams canon, Joy Dimmers reverse engineer the ideas of slowcore, not exactly bringing it to a close, but expanding on its current form with something decisively future proof.

And that’s what Red Will is. Rough around the edges, but that’s the beauty of it. Joy Dimmers make scuffed up slowcore that is authentic and supremely on the level – two key facets that made us fall in love with the genre in the first place. Red Will evokes the exact same feelings, and it’s wonderful to experience it again all these years later.

Red Will is out now via Wrong Speed Records. Purchase from Bandcamp.