Bugland is not necessarily a word… but then again, it’s not not one. Picture it.  A land of bugs. A place where beetles, moths and worms frolic, and humans are a yucky plague. Bugland is also the name of No Joy’s fifth and newest full length – an album inspired in no small part by Jasamine White-Gluz’s move to a more rustic area, where creatures straight out of James & The Giant Peach scuttle, slither, flit and mate.  A place where stripped trees covered in ants represent safety, and lengthy internet recipes that ask if you accept cookies most assuredly do not.

The recipe for Bugland has none of the fat of those internet AI GPT robot-life-story chicken novellas. As per previous albums, every track feels thought out and intentional, with magical co-production plus sonic additions/dances/noises/mysticism from renowned hypervaporwavista Fire-Toolz adding touches that completely change the direction of a song– sometimes several times. It’s not a standard loud-quiet dynamic, either. It’s train ride that chugs through forests and glaciers, catches fire midway through and flies Polar Express style into the air, floating past the moon like a certain Extra-Terrestrial who needed moisturizer.

Clearly sympatico at the time of collaborating, Fire-Toolz (AKA Angel Marcloid)  and White-Gluz had both resituated to secluded woodsy milieus prior to the “Bugland seshies”, as I now name the historic pairing. Together, they created an aural equivalent of a late 1980 I-d magazine front and back cover, with a non-problematic National Geographic hiding within. Fire-Toolz sums it up: “The collaboration really felt limitless. I didn’t have to adhere to a certain vision in a way that made me feel like I couldn’t be Fire-Toolz. I could easily relate to this album because Jasamine and I liked a lot of the same music, and I was able to be creative in ways that were freeing as if I was making my own album. “

Both spent days driving through on empty rural highways listening to the mixes, and it reflects in the final product. With an open ear, many “influence eggs” can be detected by the listener. Garbage Dream House is Zooropian without any of U2’s ego baggage. Seven-minute closing track Jelly Meadow Bright even manages to meld Stooges’ Fun House out of control saxophone with the chill buoyancy of a high-end spa. Touching on respected, familiar genres and sounds while attempting to advance one’s own isn’t easy but Bugland manages to. What genre is it anyway?  Is it even shoegaze when it could live happily on a shelf next to Boards of Canada and Autechre? The right answer is ‘yes’. What a lovely shelf ‘twould be as well.  A marble shelf, with cyberpunk elements.

Bugland‘s a testament to White-Gluz’s evolution and her ability to channel a wide variety of tastes into something cohesive that can descend into fine-tuned chaos, then out of that chaos with ease.

Five albums deep, No Joy is still awake and alert enough to conduct the train for the foreseeable future. Starting in a more traditional manner; friends sharing songwriting duties, touring together and posting anonymously in the Brooklyn Vegan comment section, something White-Gluz denies – although she did write screamo reviews for www.exclaim.ca in 2004. After the critically praised debut Ghost Blonde showcased distortion-drenched laconic ‘slow punk’ sensibilities, sophomore LP Wait To Pleasure gazed at its shoes even harder while making sure each song was distinct. More Faithful was the last ‘full band’ release, but further challenged expectations and felt like anything but a finale.  As No Joy’s identity transitioned to Jasamine as sole full-time member/songwriter, there was a five-year gap between full lengths. From White-Gluz: “The wait wasn’t intentional, but I think rural living made me tune out the noise of the music biz and focus more inwards writing and taking my damn time. Also spending time doing things I didn’t have time to do when I was touring a lot – like learning about birds or wild swimming. I never want to put any music out that I am not fully committed to. I often think “ok this is the last album” and I want to feel confident I’ve said everything I needed to and am proud of it.”

With that in mind, 2020’s Motherhood signified and solidified her voice as a solo artist and her commitment to using shoegaze as a jumping-off point. She never leaves the genre but is never willing to adhere to what she views as a rigid rules. Think of it this way: if shoegaze music is lasagna, the only thing that matters is if it’s layers. Those food floors could be made of anything – the important thing is it’s layered and tastes special.

Lyrically, nature, riddles, play, love and illusion make appearances with the wording is compact and often repeating.  Maybe this is a watery album, it could be a gremlin that you shouldn’t get water. Don not physically put water on it though, as media isn’t waterproof.  Yes, a baby can be dunked in water, but that doesn’t mean your Nevermind CD should also be dunked.

Like the shifting sound, there are lyrical jumps – White-Gluz’s phrases are consistently short, sharp and vivid. The imagery within them is like grease getting squirted with dish soap – it starts fully formed, breaks into weird shapes, and you don’t ever eat them.  By the way, lobsters get mentioned on this album too! The bugs of the sea. Ocean is also Bugland. Save The Lobsters is based on a real story, too – “I wrote it after I found about a dozen or so lobster traps that had washed up on the shore and were getting kind of buried in the sand, but they had live lobsters in them. So, one by one I broke the cages and brought the lobsters back into the sea! Freedom!” Jasamine explains.

Speaking of Bugland, it’s pronounced like Disneyland, not like Maryland.

Fire-Toolz mentions that during Bugland’s making she felt more like a band member than the producer. That vibe is evident on the album, where her sonic additions seem molded into the songs. Though No Joy is a solo project and Bugland was written with elements of seclusion, it feels very collaborative and vibrant. But maybe we can thank bugs for that – they surround us even when we seem alone, communing and collaborating with us via biting us or eating our food.  They’re everywhere, always doing things, constantly dying and returning like little messiahs.

At this point, No Joy’s longevity impresses – having arrived on the scene at the end of the garage-shoegaze revival of the oughts (sponsored by Scion, Converse and Monster Energy) and offering a pretense-free alternative to angsty American post-punk, the band powered through several different phases and in 2015 shifted to a pure vehicle for Jesamine. As the music festivals shifted from walls of sound at midnight shows to CIA sponsorships, people’s smiles turned frown-like thanks to a steady diet of shit news.  But No Joy actually seems joyous, standing proudly as emblem bearers of an important motto: daydream about animals if you get sad.

Entering the uncertainty of the mid 2020s with an album like this is like being thrown at the bottom of a well and being given a compass, a broken ladder and an MP3 player.  It presents us with hope, fear, bliss and a little bit of effort. The great thing is you can stay in bed and listen to it and make no effort to leave the well. The well is Bugland now.  As the title track says, “you’re in Bugland”.

Bugland will be released August 8th 2025
via Sonic Cathedral (EU/UK) and Hand Drawn Dracula (CAN/US/ROW).