Excuse me for a moment while I step aside and offer up some promotional words that came with Notice It All, the second track from highly exciting newcomers Joy Atlas.

Like a slap of colour from the north, Joy Atlas continue to offer radiant, angular pop music that owes as much of a debt to gritty American R&B as it does to sunny Scando-Pop. Their soaring, synth-laden sound, paired with the resonant impact of Beccy Owen’s voice, glides above a chiming, staggering backdrop of bleak-beats, deep bass, horn-riffs and synthy dreaminess.

Not bad, eh? Here’s why I like it: it doesn’t say they’re the most exciting band to have come out of [insert place name here] since [insert name of local legends here]; it doesn’t make unquantifiable claims about how their burgeoning reputation exceeds all others. Instead, it describes the music in a way that, to me at least, is intriguing and entreating. I feel like I have an idea of what it might sound like, but I want the full soundscape. To get that, I’m going to have to listen (I want to listen).

Above all, it’s accurate. Soaring synth-dreaminess indeed.

Joy Atlas are singer/songwriter Beccy Owen, keyboard/synth player Adam Kent, bassist Ian “Dodge” Paterson and drummer Ged Robinson. Notice It All is their second single. It will be released on November 27th.

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