By Anthony Mclaude, Rock At Night New Jersey
Review: LE JUNK’s single “Rich Romance” – Digital Download-Naked Superstar Recordings-Release date June 12, 2020
Emerging East London-based multi- instrumentalist, LE JUNK is upon us unaccompanied, with his irresistible stylish disco-pop gentrification record, “Rich Romance,” a music video debut directed by one of the world’s prominent rock ‘n’ roll photographers of our time, Steve Gullick.
“Rich Romance” was filmed by Gullick, who from his panoramic opus mind has captured an iconic silhouette snapshot of Bjork, Thurston Moore from Sonic Youth, Jeff Buckley, The Screaming Trees, Elliot Smith, Soundgarden, Nirvana, and now collaborating in dazzling chiaroscuro with swag strutting electronic-rock superhuman, LE JUNK.
While traveling home from an industrious day of labor, I received an unlisted stream of a swarming one man jam session, soft parading through a groovy black and white scenic yin and yang, correlating with the 1980s experimental avant-garde club scene. LE JUNK is a calm, cool and infectious son of a gun, as he guitar riffs his way towards shooting a self-recorded release track, ‘Rich Romance,’ that is scheduled to be dumped on the commercial elite on June 12, 2020 in accordance with the label, Naked Superstar Recordings.
Like stripping the rich naked of their widespread damage, this Dan White (Buff Records) co-produced single, is a money grabbing taste of someone else’s property honey in the unbeknownst style of Chic’s Le Freak and Elvis Presley’s Jail House Rock anthem with a smooth jab of Kool & the Gang’s Summer Madness. A modus operandi of his reminds me of one-half of English musical duo, Everything but the Girl’s Ben Watt.
LE JUNK, elusive and exclusively cuts and struts in-and-out of a LED nightclub esque lounge area with vocal shagging motoric guitar riffs, opposing in a fierce monotone murmur in rejection of the nature of an all-consuming property developer; hence the gentrification lyrics, “Lets burn down this wick/ cause that’s what it’s for.” The laid-back lyrics are based on the transformation of the Fish Island in Hackney Wick in East London where Junk witnessed his old music and art studio has been corporately tainted into a luxury apartment complex. On a footnote, the poorer get poorer and the richer get greedier.
Projecting from his home studio, the quarantined debuting Rich Romance artist, LE JUNK as your party host is stacking up a whole broadcast of live shows during lockdown, which includes the Louder Than
War stage at the Alt. Escape and performing alongside artists from Meatraffle, Retiree, Mice and Mars and Saint Leonard.
Contacts
Growing up as a child in a Christian household raised by a single mother and grandmother during the 1990s was such an awe-inspiring adventure. In his Elementary School days, he took a feeling of attraction towards rock ‘n’ roll music as he heard "Beast of Burden" by The Rolling Stones, and "Don’t Let Me Down" by The Beatles playing from his uncle’s 1970 Chevy Malibu garage. Records by Madonna, Alanis Morissette, the Fugees, and Lil Suzy were also being played throughout the house by his mother, dressed in a black leather biker jacket and who would occasionally put the radio on blast.
In 7th grade back in 2002/2003 school year, Mclaude had written the number-one narrative story amongst the class and caught the attention of his then teacher, Mrs. DeFeo as she called him upfront and said “Anthony, your story on ‘The Volcano King’ is incredible. You should be a writer.” Ever since that day, Mclaude in his rebel without a cause era has always kept those words in mind as a way to keep pushing himself past the limits. As fifteen years past, he enrolled himself in Cumberland County College studying journalism and wrote for the university’s Award-Winning Newspaper, The Voice as he grew as a creative and tenacious reporter with a nose for news, and a passion for community journalism. In spite of the blessings outshining the hard times, he received the opportunity to be a staff writer for a local news outlet, The People’s Press of Millville, where he has written five articles, two press releases, page growth, and has received encouraging feedback from the community.
Today he is currently working for the magazines of Eclectic Shades and Rock at Night.
- Revisiting ANTIBOY’s Posthumous ‘Insanity’ - February 9, 2022
- M.A.G.S. Sparks a Drag and Bangs Out on ‘Say Things That Matter’ - December 27, 2021
- Wild the Coyote Takes the Road Less Traveled on ‘Silver Round Bullet’ - October 21, 2021
