serviceav press

There is a great article in the original online glossy ZooZoom which includes a video interview and photos by the renown photographer Michael Putland.
It's in the culture section of the magazine.

Infantjoy on stage at Crossing Border Festival in The Hague.

The long awaited return of the sultry-voiced Black Box Recorder babe is a typically evocative musical proposition that'll warm the cockles of the coldest heart one moment, then leave you with the heebeegeebees the next.

The Collector has Nixey's trademark Queen's English vocal elocution stamped all over it, but rather than Motorway pile-ups and prepubescent wet dreams her solo subject matter concerns a rather creepy sounding butterfly-catcher-come-lover, with issues.

It's positively upbeat compared with her former band's work, full of fluttering acoustic guitars, snip-snapping percussion and rather lovely wobbly synths. Better still is a second sumptuous track, Love And Exile which is as close to film noire as electronic pop can get.

Posted by beingjdc

Sarah Nixey, stunning in voice and looks as ever, appears on stage. "Come closer, it's alright, I'm not going to hurt you" - where's Meatloaf when you need an authoritative voice to say "I bet you say that to all the boys"? The music's plausibly good - there's not a lot to say about it, you've either heard Sarah or you haven't, as she veers between Gladys Knight, Felicity Kendal, and the young Jarvis Cocker's posh older sister, not so much singing as presenting the BBC news to music. Later she adds "Two paces more, I won't bite" and the audience audibly says "Aww, go on". The drummer is far too loud and I can't really hear the lyrics, which are alright but not exceptional when I do hear them. A couple of the upbeat numbers, including the single which you can hear at TMCQ take her in a more pop direction, shades of indie-era Kylie. I take an awful lot of photos. If you haven't heard Sarah Nixey, you're missing out.

To sum Infantjoy up in a word, weird. Not necessarily in a bad way. The set begins with a reading about the life of Erik Satie, and a series of interpretations of his early work. The theme flows through the remainder of the evening, including an urgent reading of The Musician's Day. The Metro billed this as electronica, which I think Infantjoy would be happy about, but for the first two-thirds of the set it's rather ambient for my tastes, and I'm back sitting down - apart from the reading actually watching doesn't add a great deal, until the blessed Sarah returns for some more upbeat fun and ghostly goings on (oh alright, a Japan cover). I have no complaints, though in fear of the tube timetable I leave slightly before the end, suspecting there won't be a big finale. I'm capable of being wrong.

Black Box Recorder's image played upon the fact that Sarah Nixey was a good girl being fed lines by two questionable characters, grinning in the shadows. She was the Patti Hearst of the music world, possibly brainwashed by John Moore and Luke Haines, possibly enjoying the opportunities they afforded her. Never ingenuous, never too knowing, it was a fine balance deftly pulled off.

Of course, when she started singing with BBR, Nixey was an unknown. Quite whether she would have been able to cut it as a conventional pop star was a mystery. On the evidence of The Collector, however, she would have done so with ease.

Her voice has never sounded richer, soaring beyond the spoken-melodies of BBR. The lyrics (loosely based on John Fowles' novel of the same name) depict beauty being imprisioned, but it takes Nixey's voice to bring out that fluttering, hopeless desire for liberty felt by the trapped. Musically, it is modern Bristol, reminiscent of Goldfrapp and Portishead at their most chart-friendly. The B-side, Love and Exile is exquisite, it's lingering melancholy synths and addictive piano riff making it a perfect accompaniment to the A-side. This is a truly auspicious debut.

The Mind's Construction Quarterly

INFANTJOY 'WHERE THE NIGHT GOES'

Something for connoisseurs of ambient music, albeit with a classical / jazzy twist, Infantjoy is a collaboration between former ZTT founder turned journalist Paul Morley and James Banbury whose many fine credits include arguably the most underrated band of the '90s, The Auteurs.

Together they've programmed a series of uniquely dreamy pieces for piano and percussion, mostly inspired by eccentric Impressionist French composer and musician Erik Satie. The result might be hard work for anyone who isn't au fait with music that complements your spiritual surroundings rather than your dancing feet. However, given a bit of time and patience it's hard not to fall for the lilting, strangely haunting nature of these icy yet soulful pieces.

Highlight of the set is an appearance by Black Box Recorder's Sarah Nixey, whose Talking Clock style of articulation does wonderful velveteen things to a serene cover of Japan's Ghosts.