Pitchfork

Has it really been more than a year since Junior Boys released Best New Music entry So This Is Goodbye? The several months that have passed since the electro-pop outfit's excellent if self-consciously titled Dead Horse EP would suggest, um, yeah. So it's a good time to reflect that Jeremy Greenspan wasn't the electro-pop project's only original member. Co-founder Johnny Dark left Junior Boys before they became blog-renowned, eventually going on to release the solo Can't Wait EP last year via KIN (the label we also have to thank for his former group's Best New Music'd Last Exit).

Dark returns now with vocalist San Serac as Stereo Image, who somewhat like Junior Boys combine stylized elegance with the shuffling electronic beats of 2-step garage. On "Red Lights", distorted snares and cymbals jostle over a placid bass groove, occasionally interrupted by a vocoder repeating the song's title. Serac croons dramatically about a night out: "No sad-sack DJ's ever gonna bring us down," he promises. Elsewhere, he observes, "We've got options." So, thankfully, do impatient Junior Boys fans, and an engaging one at that.

[from the "Red Nights"/"Dark Chapter" download single; out now on KIN via Bleep]