JUNIPERS FEATURE in NME ARTICLE from 2006..

 

25.AUG.2006

Former Alfie frontman Lee Gorton has launched a campaign to form a 'psychedelic supergroup' for a special project.

The singer has asked The Flaming Lips, The Zutons, Elbow, Snow Patrol and Athlete to lay down vocals for a compilation album which will be written and recorded be a host of up and coming bands.

He told NME: "I've talked with all these heads and they've all said, 'Lee you fucking nutter, sounds great'. So I've planted the seed and asked them and now it's my job to find a load of great songs that will suit them which will be written by up and coming artists and bands like Jim Noir, The Monks Kitchen, John Stammers, The Draytons and The Junipers because they're all dying to write the songs. Then we'll just try and get the big boys in to sing them'.

'I wanna have proper folk tunes on there, psychedelic tunes, northern soul and straight up Beatles-esque, Wings-esque pop classics."

The project entitled 'Red Thread' after Lee's Manchester roots has been set up to try try and bring a host of unsigned bands to the fore through major artists.

He explained: "We're just trying to get loads of bands working together, writing with each other, dropping all the stand-offish playground mentality attitude that bands have with each other sometimes when they think they've got to scrap it out. A lot of em have got good hearts and are doing it for the right reason and that's why I don't mind going (Guy) Garvey and all the others and saying 'C'mon don't you remember what it was like to be unsigned and what it was like trying to get a break when you started out?."

Although the project is still in it's tentative stages, the singer is currently on the lookout for a studio where tracks can be laid down for the record.

He went on: "All I need now is some crazy old last of the English eccentrics, some old dude who's got a decrepit old mansion anywhere, even if it's in Bulgaria, The Isle Of Skye, Wales, anywhere that'll have us for two or three weeks a month. I'm aiming to take a few producer mates, a few laptops and mics and just cane it. So if anyone has got a fucking mad mansion gis a shout."

JUNIPERS FEATURED IN FRESH ON THE NET FAVORITES...

'Mary In the Rain' was featured as a weeks favorite on the Fresh On the Net blog as voted for by readers. Nice little write up by Poppy Bristow too: 

THE JUNIPERS – Mary In The Rain

THE JUNIPERS – Mary In The Rain

We bring our roundup to a close with something a little lighter – musically, that is. Psychedelic Leicester pop pickers The Junipers bring us 'Mary In The Rain', a melodious, multi-layered pocket symphony topped with Beach Boys harmonies.

The result sounds deliciously like if Kevin Ayers had put a bit more effort into producing his records. But don’t be fooled by such sonic sunshine. 'Mary In The Rain' is based on the true story of a circus elephant, Mary, who was hanged using a crane after she killed the man who was riding her. Plenty of pop music has put a colourful wrapper on tragedy, but rarely has the tragedy been so peculiar as it is here – nor the wrapper quite so dazzling.

Official | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter/X | YouTube | Bandcamp 

THE JUNIPERS on PURE POP RADIO with ALAN HABER...

 

Red Bouquet Fair.

Summer's all the sweeter with this charming collection from the Leicester, UK band in the mix. Recalling the sweet sunshine pop sound of the 1960s and 1970s in such lovely songs as 'Summer Queen' and 'Like a Merry Go Round'. Red Bouquet Fair is no less than the audio equivalent of smiling at your good fortune on a warm day in the park while sipping cool lemonade. 

The vocals are enchanting and the instrumentation is perfectly played. By Alan Haber.

Read the full article Here!

IMAGINARY FRIENDS ALBUM REVIEW on MONOLITH COCKTAIL..

 

The Junipers…now then, if I’m not mistaken my band The Bordellos once appeared on a compilation album alongside these lovely lads. The Future Is Bright The Future Is Cloudy or vice versa. Anyway, a fine compilation from many years ago. But I digress once again.

What we have here is the fourth album from the group, and what a cracking little pop gem it is. An album of pure pop, the kind Macca and Gilbert O Sullivan used to make in the early seventies, with a touch of pure 60s pop harmony magic that The Zombies would no doubt write home to their mothers about, and playful psych undertones that yearns for the day when London used to swing  and Russ Sainty used to loiter outside the Bag O Nails with that bunch of dandies The First Impression. Imaginary Friends is a wonderful album filled with quite wonderful songs. And is really made for your record collection.

Read the full review and more on Monolith Cocktail Blog

Buy The Junipers Imaginary Friends here!

5 STAR RATING and IMAGINARY FRIENDS ALBUM REVIEW in SHINDIG! MAGAZINE..

 

From Shindig Magazine October 2024

The Junipers are connoisseurs of classic harmony pop, channeling a myriad of familiar and obscure influences. The fourth album maybe their most fully realised yet. Regular readers will be familiar with singer Robyn Gibson and his Bob Of the Pops sideline covers project, or guitarist Pete Goughs Bite it Deep blog, that deep mines forgotten pop gems from the 60's and 70's. All of this explains what to do expect from a Junipers album.

With a nod to John Carter productions here and a wink to early High Llamas there, The Junipers create a sound that radiates with a warm hazy glow. Songs like 'Monkey On My Back' and 'Annie Almond' are stuffed with tiny little pieces of nostalgic inspiration. The lovely Autumnal folk of 'Red Song' recalls Elliott Smith at his most wistful. 

If you like melancholic harmony-pop with Toytown psych flourishes, The Junipers are sweet medicine for the soul. 

IMAGINARY FRIENDS ALBUM REVIEW in MAKING TIME FANZINE..

Translated from Spanish. Original Text HERE!

THEY COME IN COLORS: THE JUNIPERS' NEW ALBUM, IMAGINARY FRIENDS

The Junipers are a secret to the general public but well known by a select group of tasters of the best sounds who rejoice in the release of the group's new album, the fourth and entitled IMAGINARY FRIENDS, eleven songs encapsulated on vinyl, CD or digital download availableon their bandcamp that make up a small treasure of crystalline and super-perfect pop, and that benefits from a compact, homogeneous production, which gives coherence to the album and that, unfortunately, is not usually as usual and desirable in the production of today's 60s influence groups.
 
IMAGINARY FRIENDS, a self-released album by The Junipers, began its journey before the summer with the releases of new songs that foreshadowed the arrival of great things. The first was Annie Almond, a small and infectious pop capsule that takes us back to 1968, full of vocal melodies and adorned with Mellotron sound and that was elevated to BBC song of the week, something that unfortunately we will never hear on Spanish public radio. It was followed by She Looked Up At The Stars, a great popsike with organ that highlights the melody and My Imaginary Friend, a delight that reminds us of the Beatles' Martha My Dear seasoned with the genius and captivating extravagances of Brian Wilson, bright, luminous and with lyrics about puppies... what more could you ask for?
 
Those three advances were followed by eight more songs to make up the album, which is already a reality (although the vinyl edition will still have to wait a few weeks) and presented in a playful and psychedelic folder that plays with the concept of imaginary friends, the first of them being The Swarthy Smith introduced with piano, elegant pop with a soft pop Californian air from the 70s followed without interruption by the softly bouncy bubblegum full of vocal harmonies of You're My Sugar And Spice.
 
While You Preside brings to mind the powerpop a la Crabby Appleton but in its flow it drifts and enters psychedelic terrain, magnificent. Mary In The Rain returns to circulate in Beatlesque ways circa 1967, melodies always supported by the gentle voices of The Junipers, while for Monkey On My Back they also look at sounds from 1967 but in this case more typical of the Beach Boys; its instrumentation and melody, and the very light and progressive elevation of the intensity of the composition makes us think of Brian Wilson, as well as I've Been In Your Shoes that also reminds us of the Beach Boys but those of 1964-1965.
 
The album comes to an end with Red Song, beautiful acoustic airs and again the Mellotron, and Hollow Sky that closes with a livelier spirit, pop made from piano, organ and sophisticated but endearing melodies.
A marvel of an album that should have been double, at least, to give us more of the pop brand Junipers, but with this duration it is presented to us as a perfect musical pill.
IMAGINARY FRIENDS can be enjoyed on The Junipers bandcamp, where physical copies can also be purchased. Don't miss it!

David