Joywave- 77777

These days mixtapes are a dime a dozen, some will blow you away while others just crumble and eventually become fodder for the toilet. However every so often there is a band that rises to the occasion and produces a mixtape that is solid from start to finish, and even incorporates their own sound and originality into the newly crafted song. What Joywave, the five-piece band from Rochester, NY, has done just that with their mixtape 77777 that can be described as a musical journey across the universe.

The album starts out with heavily James Blake influenced track “Winnipeg,” that’s seductive, and filled with flavorful static at the beginning that adds an intriguing dynamic to singer Dan Armbruster’s brilliant falsetto vocals, followed by choir dubbed electronic keys, fizzled sounding drums, and solemn piano chords. The album soon jumps into a more upbeat tempo with “The Launch” a track the mixes The Flaming Lip’s “Do You Realize?” with MGMT’s “Kids” what makes this a sold remix is that the band makes it entirely their own by sampling the first three words of ‘Do you realize” with Armbruster responding with “That we’re fortunate to be alive.” The album then takes on a more electronic/club sound with “Titan” that opens up with an orchestral overdub that sounds like something out of a James Bond film, then moves into an edgy disco beat, followed by a flanged bass, and a jazzy 80’s horns and sax accompaniment.

The album then moves into the stellar and strongest track on the album “PM” where Armbruster belts out “No I won’t even try, to be alone” in a repetitious fashion, with the sparkling sound of spacey keys, pan flute electronics, and a very focused and interestingly layered percussion flows like a shooting star through the cosmos. Then comes the interesting cover of Limp Bizkit’s “Rearranged” the song is haunting an mesmerizing and features Armbruster’s vocals modulated by a vocoder, that sounds very similar to Imogen Heap’s “Hide and Seek.” The comes the stunning track “Betegeuse” which samples Miike Snow and LCD Soundsystem, here you can really feel the raw emotion and isolation that is present as Armbruster belts out “all my friends are ghosts.” The electronic samples that are present are solid and come at you like lustrous waves that keep the listening on their toes absorbing every beat and vibration. The albums closing track “Spacewalk” is very laid back and features samples by Beach House and OneRepublic, while highlighting the feelings of isolation that occur not only within the concept of space travel, but also that which plagues life as well. Here both samples are intertwined effortlessly with Armbruster’s vocals dubbed over.

If you happen to be in the Rochester, NY area on Thursday, May 5th Joywave will be performing 77777 from front to back at the Bug Jar.

JOYWAVE - 77777 Mixtape by JOYWAVE

You can download Joywave’s Mixtape here