JG Ballad

Diamond Rings is now JG Ballad (listen)

While writing about the new Austra album earlier today, I thought back to their early days of 2011, when they used to collaborate with fellow Toronto synthpop artist Diamond Rings. Diamond Rings seemingly fell off the face of the earth after 2013, but a little googling showed that he (aka John O’Regan) has actually been making music (and DJing) as JG Ballad (not to be confused with the author JG Ballard, who he’s presumably named after). He’s got a handful of tracks on Soundcloud, all of which pick up right where Diamond Rings left off: danceable synthpop with John’s romantic baritone leading the way. The one major difference for this project is the visuals. Diamond Rings was as colorful as it gets, while all of JG Ballad’s artwork is black and white.

The most recent song he uploaded was about a year ago. No word on more music or any upcoming shows at the moment (though he made a “rare” DJ appearance at The Baltimore House in Hamilton, ON a few months ago). Stay tuned for any more details, and listen to his stuff here:

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