N*JOY – “Snakes & Ladders”

Tim Keen, former drummer of the Montreal post-punk band Ought, has a new group, and it’s very different from his last one. In the duo N*JOY, Keen and his partner Nina Vroemen make nervous, agitated dance music. Earlier this summer, N*JOY dropped their single “Morph Me.” On the Indieheads subreddit last week, Keen wrote, “last time i posted here stereogum picked it up and we got a lil record deal!” Hey! That’s cool! Glad to help! Now, N*JOY have another new single, so of course we’re going to post it.

The new N*JOY track is called “Snakes & Ladders,” and it’s a hammering house track with a whispery, sinister vocal. A song like this could’ve done serious dancefloor damage back in the electroclash era, and now that the aesthetic and vibe of that moment is back in the zeitgeist, it still hits hard. What if N*JOY get another record deal after we post this one? What if we keep posting N*JOY tracks, and they continue to sign bigger deals each time, to the point where they have their own McDonald’s meal by summer 2026? I guess we’ll find out. Listen to “Snakes & Ladders” below.