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Chiller Cabinet
EVERY SATURDAY & SUNDAY 2 - 4 am
Classic FM 1 0 0 ~ 1 0 2 fm
A two hour mix of ambience, movies, & minimalism.
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SATURDAY 25 FEBRUARY
Hour 1
|1|Hirota-Lockett|M'bra Bream|6:00|
|2|Anti Atlas|Sefrou|4:17|
|3|Japan|Temple of Dawn|4:04|
|4|Gustavo Santaolalla |Do we lose 21 Grams|2:27|
|5|Cortney Tidwell|Fever Queen|2:19|
|6|Lockett-Hirota|Chappa Chappa Ki-da-ta-ka|3:40|
|7|Infinite Scale|in-motion|3:44|
|8|Joby Talbot|Incubator|4:38|
|9|Gorky's Zygotic Mynci|The blue trees|2:07|
|10|Glenn Kotche|Fantasy on a Shona Theme|4:06|
|11|Infantjoy|Composure|6:25|
|12|Global Communications|12.18|12:18|

DJ: Ben Eshmade

The Luminaire, London, 6/2/06


Infantjoy provided spoken words laced over the top of light-headed electronic piano and computer-generated rhythms, creating these haunting soundscapes that did not necessarily teleport you to another physical location, but perhaps to some sort of ghost world that exists in parallel. Speaker Paul Morley commands attention with unbreakable stage presence, maintaining your link with the earthly plain.

I'd not even heard of two-piece "eclectronic" Infantjoy before they opened for Icelandic solo artist Daníel Ágúst (read the review of that gig here). It was only while researching for this review that I discovered the links. A group couldn't just pop up out of nowhere and create a record like this. It was then that I made the link that this Paul Morley was also the musician/writer/artist Paul Morley of Art Of Noise. The chap fiddling with electronic equipment behind him? James Banbury of The Auteurs. Now it made more sense.

And then I was disappointed to discover that the fantastic spoken words proclaimed by Paul Morley from the stage was not on the album. Without the words, it's still beautiful, but you're left adrift without the ethereal anchor to reality provided by Morley's voice.

Written by Greg at LiveOnStage.co.uk
More photos at flickr

Sarah Nixey @ Islington Academy
25/1/06

In the years since cult band Black Box Recorder went on an indefinite hiatus, it’s been easy to forget their dark brand of electro pop. In a time before Alison Goldfrapp and perhaps even Sophie Ellis–Bextor, Sarah Nixey, Black Box Recorder's frontwoman, was the closest thing you’d find to royalty in the charts.   

Elegant yet acerbic, Sarah’s Queen’s English pronunciation and chic beauty made her a pinup for geeky indie boys everywhere. And so, at Nixey’s first solo gig (supporting former bandmate, Luke Haines), it’s no surprise to see the sparse audience made up of misty-eyed thirty-somethings.

Taking to the stage with a small band and backing singer, Sarah draws coos from the audience as she launches into the magnificent ‘Love and Exile’. Feeling not dissimilar to her old work, this glides along broodingly with a scratchy synth backing track.

‘Strangelove’, Sarah's self-described dance anthem, is certainly a move away from her typical sound. Her vocals are less detached and include a pleasant, shouty “Hey” hook reminiscent of Moloko’s ‘Pure Pleasure Seeker’. It's perhaps the most chart-likely of the tracks we hear tonight.

A short but sweet set. Sarah clearly still has many more entrancingly bitter and elegant stories left to tell us.

written by Talia Kraines