jj

The Swedish duo jj emerged on Gothenburg's Sincerely Yours Records in 2009, with a particularly gratifying take on the musical preoccupations common to much of the label's roster. Their take on neo-Balearic indie pop filters Air France's tropical haze, the Tough Alliance's penchant for slyly irreverent appropriation, and the Honeydrips' fragile twee pop melodicism into a beguilingly lush, gently electronic style reminiscent of prime Saint Etienne with a smoother, beachier sheen. jj also share their labelmates' propensity for mystery, favoring an artfully enigmatic presentation that has engendered near-complete Internet silence concerning the group's identity and back-story, but the female vocalist (who has been identified only as "Elin") provides a distinguishing sonic hallmark in the form of her warm, lusciously smooth alto. Their firstpair of releases, the sequentially titled 7" jj N¦ 1 and debut album jj N¦ 2, appeared in spring 2009. After a move to Secretly Canadian stateside, jjÆs third album, jj N¦ 3, was released on March 9, 2010. ~ K. Ross Hoffman, Rovi...

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