Monday, October 16, 2006
Observer Music Monthly - Infantjoy / With review
5 stars ***** (out of 5) (A top ten album of the month)
A host of innovators from previous decades haunt this album of remixes. Simon Reynolds's hair stands on end .
Sunday October 15, 2006
Observer Music Monthly
'Tis the season to be spooky. From the label Ghostbox to Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, the notion of spectral music is the meme of the moment. Last year Infantjoy's debut Where the Night Goes featured a cover of Japan's synth-noir classic 'Ghosts'. Now the sequel With arrives bearing a manifesto of sorts in the form of 'Absence'. 'It is necessary to speak of the ghost,' intones Paul Morley, half of Infantjoy alongside ex-Auteur James Banbury. 'Speak to the spectre, engage it ... do not command it ... but dance with it ... We are always haunted by ghosts and we cannot freely choose what we will be haunted by.'
With is something of a ghost version of Where the Night Goes, encompassing remixes of the latter's tracks by various kindred, erm, spirits in the electronic field as well as all-new pieces like 'A Haunted Space' (sensing a bit of a theme here?). 'Ghosts' itself rematerialises in a spare treatment by Populous that gives even more prominence to the gorgeous vocals of Sarah Nixey, whose uncanny Kate Bush-like tones conjure up a parallel pop universe where the raven-haired goddess fronted Japan instead of David Sylvian. Isan's remake of 'Composure' transports the original's rolling piano chords into a frosted wonderland of electronic tingles and sample-stretched sighs.
Sound's insubstantiality, the way that music always elude our attempts to fix and define, is a major Morley obsession, and in this spirit With keeps hazy the question of authorship, such that you're never quite sure who's remixing whom. 'Someone With Handshake', for instance, appears to be a collaboration between two guest producers, Someone and Handshake, with Infantjoy's involvement quite possibly limited to having convened the encounter. Unless the track's digitally mangled voice, which sounds like it's covered with furry spikes, like a crystal forming in a solution, is actually Morley's. By the track's end, its heavily processed beats are so encrusted with gnarly texture, the groove almost grinds to a halt.
Infantjoy confirms Morley's membership of a select group of rock writers who've made music without disgracing themselves. A concept album about Erik Satie, Where the Night Goes formed a 20th-century modernism-obsessed continuum with the Art of Noise: the Futurism and Dada coordinates of 1983's Into Battle, the Debussy-meets-drum'n'bass of AoN's resurrection in the late Nineties. Infantjoy's claims for Satie are slightly overblown ('just about every radical musical movement of the past 100 years' is traceable back to 'Trois Gymnopedies' and 'furniture music'? Tell that to Duke Ellington, James Brown, King Tubby, and a good dozen more - mostly black - innovators!). But the fantasy underlying this polemic - an alternative history of pop in which America and rock'n'soul never existed, a straight line from Russolo through Stockhausen, Pierre Henry, Kraftwerk, Eno, Oval, to, well, Infantjoy - makes for a compelling dissident vision, with an absorbingly eerie sound to match.
Download: 'Ghosts'; 'Composure'
written by Simon Reynolds for Observer Music Monthly.
A host of innovators from previous decades haunt this album of remixes. Simon Reynolds's hair stands on end .
Sunday October 15, 2006
Observer Music Monthly
'Tis the season to be spooky. From the label Ghostbox to Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, the notion of spectral music is the meme of the moment. Last year Infantjoy's debut Where the Night Goes featured a cover of Japan's synth-noir classic 'Ghosts'. Now the sequel With arrives bearing a manifesto of sorts in the form of 'Absence'. 'It is necessary to speak of the ghost,' intones Paul Morley, half of Infantjoy alongside ex-Auteur James Banbury. 'Speak to the spectre, engage it ... do not command it ... but dance with it ... We are always haunted by ghosts and we cannot freely choose what we will be haunted by.'
With is something of a ghost version of Where the Night Goes, encompassing remixes of the latter's tracks by various kindred, erm, spirits in the electronic field as well as all-new pieces like 'A Haunted Space' (sensing a bit of a theme here?). 'Ghosts' itself rematerialises in a spare treatment by Populous that gives even more prominence to the gorgeous vocals of Sarah Nixey, whose uncanny Kate Bush-like tones conjure up a parallel pop universe where the raven-haired goddess fronted Japan instead of David Sylvian. Isan's remake of 'Composure' transports the original's rolling piano chords into a frosted wonderland of electronic tingles and sample-stretched sighs.
Sound's insubstantiality, the way that music always elude our attempts to fix and define, is a major Morley obsession, and in this spirit With keeps hazy the question of authorship, such that you're never quite sure who's remixing whom. 'Someone With Handshake', for instance, appears to be a collaboration between two guest producers, Someone and Handshake, with Infantjoy's involvement quite possibly limited to having convened the encounter. Unless the track's digitally mangled voice, which sounds like it's covered with furry spikes, like a crystal forming in a solution, is actually Morley's. By the track's end, its heavily processed beats are so encrusted with gnarly texture, the groove almost grinds to a halt.
Infantjoy confirms Morley's membership of a select group of rock writers who've made music without disgracing themselves. A concept album about Erik Satie, Where the Night Goes formed a 20th-century modernism-obsessed continuum with the Art of Noise: the Futurism and Dada coordinates of 1983's Into Battle, the Debussy-meets-drum'n'bass of AoN's resurrection in the late Nineties. Infantjoy's claims for Satie are slightly overblown ('just about every radical musical movement of the past 100 years' is traceable back to 'Trois Gymnopedies' and 'furniture music'? Tell that to Duke Ellington, James Brown, King Tubby, and a good dozen more - mostly black - innovators!). But the fantasy underlying this polemic - an alternative history of pop in which America and rock'n'soul never existed, a straight line from Russolo through Stockhausen, Pierre Henry, Kraftwerk, Eno, Oval, to, well, Infantjoy - makes for a compelling dissident vision, with an absorbingly eerie sound to match.
Download: 'Ghosts'; 'Composure'
written by Simon Reynolds for Observer Music Monthly.
Drowned In Sound - Infantjoy / With review
With, the second album from electro duo Infantjoy, seems on first impressions to lie firmly in the ‘ambient’ category. With gently pulsing beats, flickering bleeps and beeps, washes of subtly tuneful distortion, waves of electronic hiss and the odd surreal sample, it initially registers as soft, low-impact stuff.
However: first impressions here are, as so often, deceiving. Play it again, and again, and it slowly becomes apparent exactly how many disconcerting strangenesses lie under the surface. In fact, if close attention is paid, With actually becomes quite an unsettling listen, and also a strangely satisfying one – and the aspects of it which slowly reveal themselves and hook you in are exactly the ones that make it seem so flimsy on first listen.
Y’see, that low impact sound – those soft, lightweight waves of noise – make it quite hard to pin this down. With doesn’t stick around in the mind; it won’t let you predict it; it doesn’t have hooks you can hum along to, and it’s quite hard to make it cohere in your thoughts. So: when you add notes that clink in a way that sounds like the beginning of the ice cracking, or samples in which anonymous people in an echoing room cry “Hear hear!” in response to motions which you just know bode ill for mankind; when soaring violins are counterpointed with alien vocal squelchings; when it just generally sounds like some darker, malignant world is knocking on the other side of the album and trying to get in… Well, it makes the whole thing take on a rather more threatening aspect, made all the more creepy for being attached to something so elusive and seemingly harmless.
That unnerving feeling is never made explicit, and it’s still possible to put this on with the intention of letting it wash around you. It’s just that when you do so, you need to be prepared to have one warily disconcerted corner of your mind constantly worrying and nagging at the sound as it whispers into your ears. If you’re inclined to put some effort into listening to music, and are interested in noise as art-concept as well as escapism, you might well get a lot out of being disconcerted by this.
Rating: 7/10
by Holliy at Drowned In Sound
However: first impressions here are, as so often, deceiving. Play it again, and again, and it slowly becomes apparent exactly how many disconcerting strangenesses lie under the surface. In fact, if close attention is paid, With actually becomes quite an unsettling listen, and also a strangely satisfying one – and the aspects of it which slowly reveal themselves and hook you in are exactly the ones that make it seem so flimsy on first listen.
Y’see, that low impact sound – those soft, lightweight waves of noise – make it quite hard to pin this down. With doesn’t stick around in the mind; it won’t let you predict it; it doesn’t have hooks you can hum along to, and it’s quite hard to make it cohere in your thoughts. So: when you add notes that clink in a way that sounds like the beginning of the ice cracking, or samples in which anonymous people in an echoing room cry “Hear hear!” in response to motions which you just know bode ill for mankind; when soaring violins are counterpointed with alien vocal squelchings; when it just generally sounds like some darker, malignant world is knocking on the other side of the album and trying to get in… Well, it makes the whole thing take on a rather more threatening aspect, made all the more creepy for being attached to something so elusive and seemingly harmless.
That unnerving feeling is never made explicit, and it’s still possible to put this on with the intention of letting it wash around you. It’s just that when you do so, you need to be prepared to have one warily disconcerted corner of your mind constantly worrying and nagging at the sound as it whispers into your ears. If you’re inclined to put some effort into listening to music, and are interested in noise as art-concept as well as escapism, you might well get a lot out of being disconcerted by this.
Rating: 7/10
by Holliy at Drowned In Sound
MSN Entertainment - Infantjoy / With review
Follow-up to James Banbury and Paul Morley's acclaimed debut Where The Night Goes is much more than just a remix album.
Infantjoy's unique ambient vision was originally inspired by the work of Erik Satie, but these 'revisions' from the likes of Isan and Handshake are far less conceptual, giving With the air of totally original project.
The fluttering Beat Within magically disguises snip-snapping percussion with drones of atonal synths while Lodge's more groove driven Exposure is a veritable sonic wonderland of glistening waves of musical colours. The set's focal point remains a gorgeous cover of Japan's signature hit Ghosts, but Populous have stripped the ballad down to its twinkling bear essentials which only serves to highlight Sarah Nixey intoxicatingly intense vocal.
Effortlessly haunting and exquisitely produced, With is a mesmering ride and one that's probably best listened to at dusk, sipping a glass of full bodied red wine, possibly with a pink cocktail brolly languishing in it.
by James Cabooter at MSN.
Infantjoy's unique ambient vision was originally inspired by the work of Erik Satie, but these 'revisions' from the likes of Isan and Handshake are far less conceptual, giving With the air of totally original project.
The fluttering Beat Within magically disguises snip-snapping percussion with drones of atonal synths while Lodge's more groove driven Exposure is a veritable sonic wonderland of glistening waves of musical colours. The set's focal point remains a gorgeous cover of Japan's signature hit Ghosts, but Populous have stripped the ballad down to its twinkling bear essentials which only serves to highlight Sarah Nixey intoxicatingly intense vocal.
Effortlessly haunting and exquisitely produced, With is a mesmering ride and one that's probably best listened to at dusk, sipping a glass of full bodied red wine, possibly with a pink cocktail brolly languishing in it.
by James Cabooter at MSN.
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
ireallylovemusic review - Infantjoy / With
infantjoy return with a new album.
well, sort of.
as with paul morleys previous music industry experiment, ztt records, things are never that simple when paul is involved.
you see, the bands debut album, where the night goes, ended up being one of my favourite late night working soundtracks with its delicate erik satie piano melodies and undercurrents of modern studio ambience. unfortunately, the major label, upon which the album was released, didn’t really know what to do with this piece of music and art and so the album literally vanished into thin air. so prior to infantjoy re-releasing the album on their own serviceav label, they are releasing an album comprising of revised versions (oh go on then, let’s call them remixes), and a few new tracks thrown in for good measure, and calling the result - with.
alongside paul and james banbury are other people involved with (geddit?) the band.
names such as isan, mark lodge, handshake, someone, populous, and even folktronica heroes tuung pop up across the albums 12 tracks.
where the original album was open and warm and gave the listener a warm all encompassing glow, this time around there are ominous beats, subsonic pulsations and a air of tension. for example, leaving somewhere with someone opens the scene with some serious woofer threatening booms making it a perfect instrumental companion piece to anything off massive attacks mezzanine.
composure (with isan) revives the central focus of the piano, but adds some delightful electronica noises around the place. as is often the case, remix albums are often incomplete affairs, where there is little to connect the tracks together, making for a disjointed album. thankfully, infantjoy have managed to make sure that for all the sonic playfulness involved, the 12 tracks have a cohesive sound and feel. though the tranced up dub of exposure (with lodge) strays a little too close to some old school planet dog era ambient-trance, which may make some people recoil in flashback horror, or like me, you may just grin and do a little dance. the choice is all yours.
as well as these archived easy on the ear sonics, are chunks of paranoia rich static infused electronica, whether in the short pieces called, blosson on a stem, someone with handshake or the unsettling nature of a haunted space.
again, the centrepiece is the cover version of japans ghost, featuring sarah nixey (solo album on its way soon folks!). the track has been dabbled with by populous and is still very special, as the tinkerers haven’t really meddled too much with the core element of the song, ie sarahs vocals, its calming power is still as delicious as before, but with added scary sci-fi noises to add even more drama to the abrupt ending.
one of the concerns i had over the original album was the issue as to what exactly did paul actually do. especially as there were very few vocals, this time around such concerns are laid to rest. his voice is all over the place during the disorientating absence. and not in a weird distorted manner, but in a straightforward spoken piece. not that i understand a word he is on about of course.
and so the album continues until we get to the finale, arrival (here here) with tuung, where the band apply their tradmarked scratchy guitars and weird samples to the proceedings closing the album with a fantastic marriage of weirdness and beauty.
to conclude, with allows us to be entralled and excited that we live in an era when music making is now open to the many rather than the few, and the exclusivity of the fairlight cmi is a long lost memory, so that modern forward thinking albums like this deny the need for expensive studios, over the top sleeve art, and large record label budgets.
basically, with is an album that is both a statement of art, and a fascinating combination of modern machine noise.
by mark e of ireallylovemusic
well, sort of.
as with paul morleys previous music industry experiment, ztt records, things are never that simple when paul is involved.
you see, the bands debut album, where the night goes, ended up being one of my favourite late night working soundtracks with its delicate erik satie piano melodies and undercurrents of modern studio ambience. unfortunately, the major label, upon which the album was released, didn’t really know what to do with this piece of music and art and so the album literally vanished into thin air. so prior to infantjoy re-releasing the album on their own serviceav label, they are releasing an album comprising of revised versions (oh go on then, let’s call them remixes), and a few new tracks thrown in for good measure, and calling the result - with.
alongside paul and james banbury are other people involved with (geddit?) the band.
names such as isan, mark lodge, handshake, someone, populous, and even folktronica heroes tuung pop up across the albums 12 tracks.
where the original album was open and warm and gave the listener a warm all encompassing glow, this time around there are ominous beats, subsonic pulsations and a air of tension. for example, leaving somewhere with someone opens the scene with some serious woofer threatening booms making it a perfect instrumental companion piece to anything off massive attacks mezzanine.
composure (with isan) revives the central focus of the piano, but adds some delightful electronica noises around the place. as is often the case, remix albums are often incomplete affairs, where there is little to connect the tracks together, making for a disjointed album. thankfully, infantjoy have managed to make sure that for all the sonic playfulness involved, the 12 tracks have a cohesive sound and feel. though the tranced up dub of exposure (with lodge) strays a little too close to some old school planet dog era ambient-trance, which may make some people recoil in flashback horror, or like me, you may just grin and do a little dance. the choice is all yours.
as well as these archived easy on the ear sonics, are chunks of paranoia rich static infused electronica, whether in the short pieces called, blosson on a stem, someone with handshake or the unsettling nature of a haunted space.
again, the centrepiece is the cover version of japans ghost, featuring sarah nixey (solo album on its way soon folks!). the track has been dabbled with by populous and is still very special, as the tinkerers haven’t really meddled too much with the core element of the song, ie sarahs vocals, its calming power is still as delicious as before, but with added scary sci-fi noises to add even more drama to the abrupt ending.
one of the concerns i had over the original album was the issue as to what exactly did paul actually do. especially as there were very few vocals, this time around such concerns are laid to rest. his voice is all over the place during the disorientating absence. and not in a weird distorted manner, but in a straightforward spoken piece. not that i understand a word he is on about of course.
and so the album continues until we get to the finale, arrival (here here) with tuung, where the band apply their tradmarked scratchy guitars and weird samples to the proceedings closing the album with a fantastic marriage of weirdness and beauty.
to conclude, with allows us to be entralled and excited that we live in an era when music making is now open to the many rather than the few, and the exclusivity of the fairlight cmi is a long lost memory, so that modern forward thinking albums like this deny the need for expensive studios, over the top sleeve art, and large record label budgets.
basically, with is an album that is both a statement of art, and a fascinating combination of modern machine noise.
by mark e of ireallylovemusic
SoundsXP review - Infantjoy / With
Article written by Alex McM
Oct 9, 2006.
‘With’ is the second Infantjoy album, following last year’s acclaimed ’Where The Night Goes’ (WTNG) and this album is very much it’s companion piece, consisting of five remixes by the likes of Isan, Tunng, and Mark Lodge, and seven new tracks. It’s a feisty album, and one that is not easy to pigeonhole. Infantjoy described WTNG as eclectronic, which fit’s the bill to an extent, but this album is an angrier darker and more brooding slab of electronica.
And this is an 8/10 album. After dark, it’s a 9/10 album. After dark and travelling by train or car it’s a solid gold 10 as the cinematic pieces unfold against a moving landscape. And as if to make this clear to the listener, the album begins with ’Leaving Somewhere With Someone’, a back drop of stark bleeps with a gorgeous piano melody dripping across it, and finishes with ’Arrival’.
‘Composure’ remixed by Isan follows our departure. The deliciously soft, delicate piano of the original from WTNG offset by the bleeps and whirring. It really works. ‘Exposure’ with Mark Lodge is one of the standout tracks, up tempo and uplifting, again taking the delicate piano line from WTNG but underpinning it with a skidding and thudding drumbeat and hands-in-the-air swirling keys kicking in towards the finish. And similarly, ‘Application #4’ is to die for. Like ’Risky Business’ era Tangerine Dream, pulsating and textured.
The twelve tracks are mainly instrumental with the exception of Infantjoy’s take on ’Ghosts’, the Japan mega-hit of yesteryear. The Populous remix stripping the track down to bare essentials underneath Sarah Nixey’s breathless vocal.
And all too soon the journey is complete. ’Arrival’ with Tunng introducing a hint of folk guitar before we come to a finish. But like all the best trips, this album stays with you, a thought provoking soundtrack to interesting places.
SoundsXP
Oct 9, 2006.
‘With’ is the second Infantjoy album, following last year’s acclaimed ’Where The Night Goes’ (WTNG) and this album is very much it’s companion piece, consisting of five remixes by the likes of Isan, Tunng, and Mark Lodge, and seven new tracks. It’s a feisty album, and one that is not easy to pigeonhole. Infantjoy described WTNG as eclectronic, which fit’s the bill to an extent, but this album is an angrier darker and more brooding slab of electronica.
And this is an 8/10 album. After dark, it’s a 9/10 album. After dark and travelling by train or car it’s a solid gold 10 as the cinematic pieces unfold against a moving landscape. And as if to make this clear to the listener, the album begins with ’Leaving Somewhere With Someone’, a back drop of stark bleeps with a gorgeous piano melody dripping across it, and finishes with ’Arrival’.
‘Composure’ remixed by Isan follows our departure. The deliciously soft, delicate piano of the original from WTNG offset by the bleeps and whirring. It really works. ‘Exposure’ with Mark Lodge is one of the standout tracks, up tempo and uplifting, again taking the delicate piano line from WTNG but underpinning it with a skidding and thudding drumbeat and hands-in-the-air swirling keys kicking in towards the finish. And similarly, ‘Application #4’ is to die for. Like ’Risky Business’ era Tangerine Dream, pulsating and textured.
The twelve tracks are mainly instrumental with the exception of Infantjoy’s take on ’Ghosts’, the Japan mega-hit of yesteryear. The Populous remix stripping the track down to bare essentials underneath Sarah Nixey’s breathless vocal.
And all too soon the journey is complete. ’Arrival’ with Tunng introducing a hint of folk guitar before we come to a finish. But like all the best trips, this album stays with you, a thought provoking soundtrack to interesting places.
SoundsXP
Infantjoy - With (whispering and hollerin review)
Our Rating: 9/10 stars
'With' is the follow up album to Infantjoy's 2005 critically acclaimed debut album 'Where The Night Goes'. It is an album that easily ticks all the boxes of your mental stereotype of a chill-out album, with it's slow, laid back ambient tracks; yet at the same time, it is a record that manages to deliver a lot more than your bog-standard chill-out collection.
From the disjointed sounds and samples of 'Arrival (Here Here)' featuring Tunng, to the electrical buzz which marks the backdrop to 'Blossom On A Stem' each track on the album manages to deliver more than you expected, drawing you closer into the beats behind the tunes. The highlight of the record is surely the haunting Kate Bush-esque vocals of Sarah Nixey on Infantjoy's remix of Ghosts (first featured on 'Where The Night Goes') but it has stiff competition throughout.
by Charlotte Otter at Whisperin and Hollerin
'With' is the follow up album to Infantjoy's 2005 critically acclaimed debut album 'Where The Night Goes'. It is an album that easily ticks all the boxes of your mental stereotype of a chill-out album, with it's slow, laid back ambient tracks; yet at the same time, it is a record that manages to deliver a lot more than your bog-standard chill-out collection.
From the disjointed sounds and samples of 'Arrival (Here Here)' featuring Tunng, to the electrical buzz which marks the backdrop to 'Blossom On A Stem' each track on the album manages to deliver more than you expected, drawing you closer into the beats behind the tunes. The highlight of the record is surely the haunting Kate Bush-esque vocals of Sarah Nixey on Infantjoy's remix of Ghosts (first featured on 'Where The Night Goes') but it has stiff competition throughout.
by Charlotte Otter at Whisperin and Hollerin
Infantjoy on iTunes
