serviceav press

Out on July 9th 2007 on limited edition one-sided 7inch and CDsingle - plus all manner of download stores...

Click here to go to the most recent Sarah Nixey pictures posted to flickr.

A snippet of Endless Circles from Sing, Memory.

A snippet of Masquerade from the album Sing, Memory.

Sarah Nixey - When I'm Here With You

Andreas Horvath directs the video to When I'm Here With You in the sumptuous faded glamour of Bush Hall, London. The fantastic dancers are Alan and Nancy Cross, and Mr O N Looker is Mark Lodge of Strangelove remix fame...

When I'm Here With You is released as a single on 29th January 2007.

Sarah's debut solo album 'Sing, Memory' will be out on 12th February. Almost everywhere.

Available from 12th December on iTunes and Tunetribe.com

The follow-up to 2005's debut, Where The Night Goes, this album has seven new tracks and five old ones remixed beyond recognition. With its mix of glitches, distorted grooves and moments of lilting, angular beauty, Morley and fellow Mancunian James Banbury have created what they call 'bleep hop'. They've brought the musical motifs of their debut to the fore and twisted them. Where The Night Goes was quietly ambient and beguiling, while this is more insistent, with extra trickery and a ruthless excavation of deep bass tones and disembodied piano. Their debut summoned up the ghost of Satie; this one deconstructs it. "Speak to the spectre," Morley intones on Absence, with more than a hint of irony. He's joined in this jaunt by the delicious voice of Sarah Nixey (Black Box Recorder), plus electronic mischief-makers such as Tuung, Italian artist Populous, and Handshake, a Brooklyn-based glitch-hopper.
written by LucyO'Brien

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.

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

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 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

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

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

MySpace.com
Directed by the award winning Andreas Horvath on a wet and windy night in London. Many thanks to Hugh for the location.

(The Scene: Ex-Black Box Recorder singer Sarah Nixey is a headmistress sitting behind her desk in her office. There is a knock on the door.)

Ms Nixey: "Ah, yes, Moses, do come in."

(Stuart Moses, Hard Wired’s Goth reviewer enters. Takes a seat. Ms Nixey takes a few moments to study the papers in front of her.)

Ms Nixey: "So what is this I hear about you reviewing my new single for popular review site Hard Wired? According to this review you are planning to say that 'Strangelove' is more of the same, with my stern, yet sexy, almost spoken vocals sitting on top of the faux-glam synth backing not unlike that adopted by Goldfrapp. You've written here that the single contains chanted 'hey heys' but that we are a world away from Suzi Quatro? I also read that you intend to say that I make simple pop platitudes such as 'I'm gonna stir it around' and 'Turn it upside down' sound threatening, yet strangely enticing?"

(Stuart nods slowly)

Ms Nixey: "And am I right in saying that you intend to describe me as the Goth Rachel Stevens?"

(Stuart looks at the floor in embarrassment.)

Ms Nixey: "And what is this that I read you have to say about the first of the three b-sides 'The Collector meets Comma?'"

(Stuart mumbles indistinctly)

Ms Nixey: "Do you intend to say that this is the most mainstream mix of the three? Are you planning to say the atmosphere reminds you of author John Fowles' book of the same title? Do you also ruminate that this song is unusual because I am usually in control, yet in this song I appear to be the victim, or at best a third party narrator?"

(Stuart nods)

Ms Nixey: "And is it your intention to describe 'The Collector Meets Infantjoy' as sounding like David Sylvian's solo work? That you prefer my vocals to be less stretched and tampered with, but the exquisite new synthesizer part makes up for it, recalling as it does some of The The's quieter moments?"

(Stuart nods)

Ms Nixey: "And will you say that the pace picks up for 'The Collector meets Pete Davis' which is perhaps the most radical reinvention? That you are least keen on this remix, despite the fact that at last night’s school disco this was what got most pupils on the dancefloor?”

(Stuart nods mournfully)

Ms Nixey: "Frankly I am displeased by your ill thought out criticisms. I am extremely disappointed by your arrogant belief that anyone cares what you think about music. As a punishment you must listen to the next Westlife single 100 times and write me an essay detailing why Shayne Ward is the future of pop music."

(Stuart clutches his head in his hands and screams) Stuart: "Noooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!"

by Stuart Moses at hard-wired

"Catchy Electropop"

Sarah Nixey's latest single is a sparkling electro-pop stunner with robotic beats and sassy cute backing vocals, which Nixey's own voice takes a seductive smoothness not too far from Alison Goldfrapp. The former Black Box Recorder singer has certainly created a single with enough kooky attitude to make something of herself, shimmering synths shake your hips in this retro frisson of excitement.

The remixes of first solo single 'The Collector' show a stark contrast, with the Comma Mix showing Nixey's beautifully precise vocals starting out with the richness of an early Madonna and progressing into an intricate, delicate Alice In Wonderland maze of piano and whimsical vocals. There are also a couple of techno remixes, but they only serve to tempt you to track down the original single or forthcoming album.

10/13

by Jo Vallance at roomthirteen

Sarah Nixey will be known to many as the icy voiced frontwoman of Black Box Recorder, whose sweet pop tones lent an additional chill to the dark and often sordid lyrical content. In her new manifestation as… um… herself, she takes that pop sensibility and runs with it, while maintaining a cynically wise attitude which means that this synth-beat tune, despite the disco floor friendly pumping of bass and bleeps, is a thoroughly adult offering.

Focusing on the beats of rhythmic computer effects and a clicking drum machine which somehow manages to sound sarcastic and knowing, the instrumental side of things is kept fairly minimal. This means the burden of the melody falls mainly on Nixey’s voice – and she’s more than able to carry it. Her vocal delivery shifts from cool school prefect to mature confidence, with the occasional shift into seductive pop slickness just to prove that she could play that game, if she wanted. Instead, however, of fighting for a piece of that easy-to-replicate-market, Nixey’s seeking out her own niche among those who appreciate a good pop tune but who want a bit of knowing intelligence and personality to go with it.

Judging by the strength of this smart take on the ins and outs of true-to-life romance, it’ll be the bad taste of the nation rather than her own capabilities that’ll be to blame if she doesn’t succeed.

7/10

by holliy at Drowned in Sound

Once the lead singer of the English pop/indie group, Black Box Recorder, Sarah Nixey has separated to move into poppier climbs on this disco-friendly electro-pop track, which combines the new romanticism of the early eighties synthpop era with the more contemporary crispness of… say, Goldfrapp.
Strangelove is slickly a produced effort, but not one that particularly distinguishes itself from the genre it represents, offering only a very slightly leftfield slant to what you might find in the lower reaches of the pop charts these days.

Bonus tracks come by the way of three remixes of The Collector, displaying a far more enticing and hypnotic side to Nixey, with estranged piano tones wandering around her elegant whispers and more satisfying arrangements. The entire package grows on you impressively after a while.

7.5/10

from barcode magazine

Former Black Box Recorder singer Sarah Nixey releases
her second solo single on July17th in collaboration with
independent label ServiceAV. Taken from her forthcoming
solo album Sing, Memory, Strangelove will be available
as a digital download, CD single and as a deluxe limited
edition heavyweight 7" vinyl. For those who entirely
bypassed her first steps into the pop world alone,
that song, The Collector, appears in the shape of
three spangly remixes in a generous helping of B-sides.
Comma, Infantjoy and Pete Davis are the contributors,
which may mean something to someone so take note!

Nixey plans to release exclusive remixes of Strangelove,
as well as more of The Collector, as downloads later
this year.

fromWears the Trousers

Second solo single from the former Black Box Recorder chanteuse could well be mistaken for the sound of Kraftwerk having a go at Stevie Wonder's Superstition.

Undeniably electro Strangelove is also a track that has a halfhearted attempt at funk, and the result is endearingly kitsch. Cool as ever Sarah plays the ensnared lover caught in the web of an ill-conceived romance, delivering a succession of bitter sweet curses with that delectable Queen's English dialect that only she and possibly HRH Lizzie can get away with.

They don't make too many pop records like this anymore.

from MSN.co.uk

Former Black Box Recorder singer Sarah Nixey is hitting the pop scene on her own with her second solo single "Strangelove" due out on iTunes on July 17. "Strangelove" is a song about the hell and heaven of love that Nixey approaches with both cool and fury. Musicallly, this seemingly menacing track is a pure pop confection with a frothy synth arrangement and Nixey's totally irresistible disco chic vocals in proper Queen's English. "Dress to kill. Make your mark," Nixey sings. Get ready for Sarah Nixey. A stylish pop force to be reckoned with.

The single will be released by producers Paul Morley and James Banbury’s boutique label ServiceAV. The duo is currently also working on Nixey's debut album that is due out later this year. If you have moment, also check out Nixey first single "The Collector" with mixes by The Freelance Hellraiser and others. Clikc here to purchase the 7" limited edition of "Strangelove."

from arjanwrites

Sarah Nixey - 'Strangelove'
(ServiceAV)

'Strangelove' marks the latest move of former Blackbox Recorder vocalist Sarah Nixey away from misanthropic anti-Di-pop into less cultish areas. Consequently, this is a good piece of grown up electronic pop, the kind of thing they probably listen to in strange climes, like Notting Hill. Still, fans of her earlier work will be left wanting something that better suits her ability to sound as chilly as the abominable snowman's refrigerated corpse - so a forthcoming cover of David Sylvian's 'Ghosts' could be intriguing indeed.

From playlouder.com

Here's the eflyer:


Download the fullsize one here.

Blood On The Dance Floor

Sarah Nixey is back with another exquisite dark pop tale... shouldn't there be some sort of law preventing this little minx from peddling such hypnotic sex and death-themed records? Are we safe? "Stony hearts, almost beat... this is love, a strange kind of love", she observes. The bitch is cold and we love it! The track is called 'Strangelove' and it's released on CD, limited 7" vinyl and digital download on July 17th. It's available for pre-order here but iTunes will have 2 exclusive remixes of 'Strangelove' available from July 18th. Oh, you can also hear it on her Myspace page here.

The CD single will be backed with some remixes of her debut single, 'The Collector' and our favourite, 'The Collector Meets Pete Davis', might give you a nose bleed. You have been warned. Sarah's debut album is shaping up to be a very dangerous statement of intent indeed...

from the international house of pussy

sarah nixey - strangelove/the collector

having come to the nations attention via luke haines alt.pop experiment, black box recorder, sarah then provided her trademarked sultry vocals for the standout track, 'ghosts', on the recent infantjoy album, and so now we come to the beginning of her solo career.

and the connection between these 2 outings ?

james banbury.

classically trained cellist and obviously talented bloke, james has stepped outside the ring and become both electropop producer as well as record label supremo (along with paul morley, officially, though his day to day involvement must be questioned as he has those never ending tv vox pop slots to sort out!) for this solo single. lead track, strangelove, is the unusual pairing of propaganda styled pop drama and goldfrapp, where passion and melody combine in a smattering of synths, strings and 'hey hey hey's, while the extras in the package are remixes of the previously only available as download only track, 'the collector'. each version is revisited by various record label chums, so, comma keeps the origins of the song tight, with sarah's vocals being a major presence throughout the crashing piano chords and dramatic ambience, label bosses infantjoy extent their love for all thing erik satie by stripping the song right back to a few echoed piano notes and cutup vocals for a gorgeous chunk of serenity, and then to finish off the real world package, there is a remix for the groovers. pete davis reverses the drum loops, fucks up the noises with some welcome distortion, and generally creates a 6 minutes electro dance monster. all of which makes this a fantastic single to spend your pocket money on, however, there is more.

as is the way in this modern world, the gang have decided to release some exclusives for the ipod generation. so, alongside the proper single, there are 2 versions available only via itunes, a 6 minute peter hook bassline'd filled thumper by the freelance hellraiser (james banbury sorted out strings on the soon to be released freelance album - hence the connection), and then the mysterious record label buddy, 'image of a group' switches on the biggest reverb effect pedal, and gets the beat in gear for a bubbly dance floor.

so whatever your mood, this release will provide enjoyment, as well as make you look forward to sarah's forthcoming solo album with keen anticipation.

from ireallylovemusic by mark e

Following the download-only release of her debut single The Collector, sometime Black Box Recorder chanteuse Sarah Nixey's first full solo release is something altogether poppier.
Strangelove has the lot - quirky electropop synth parts, her trademark enunciated whispers, and an infectious chorus.

from musicomh.com

From obsessions with ‘Andrew Ridgely’ to being enchanted by ‘The Deverell Twins’, Sarah Nixey is no novice on the subject of strange love. The aptly titled second single from her forthcoming album ‘Sing Memory’ is a bold, synth ridden pop song filled with typically bleak and to the point lyrics. Drawing us to attention with loud ‘Hey’s, it’s quirky bleeps and scratchy bassline almost make us feel like Sarah is floating through that image of cyberspace represented in low budget films. While indie kids might be bemoaning the loss of their pin-up girl to the dark side of pop, those of us awaiting a heroine to come and vanquish the world from the faux-pop of Orson & The Feeling may well strike gold here.
from Gigwise.com by Talia Kraines.

New Music Interview : Infantjoy

Formed out of members of Art of Noise & The Auteurs, we first came across Infantjoy while wallowing in 'OMG SARAH NIXEY IS BACK!!!111!!' induced glee a few months ago. Guest starring on their working of 'Silent Night', we were intrigued by this duo who seemed to produce mesmerizing, elegant instrumental music. Almost cinematic sounding, their concept album Where The Night Goes is based on the idea that 'each track takes place at a certain point during the night .. the album begins just after 11 o'clock at night and ends a few minutes before 9 in the morning'

Both music veterans, we caught up with James & Paul last week to get the score on exactly who they are and what they're upto.

Band Name: Infantjoy

Where does the name come from?
A poem by Blake - about that time before a child has a name, when it's closer to the mysteries of the universe than the realities of being human. You've got to have a name, if you want to be known - a band has to have a name, so we wanted a name that was about having to have a name, if you want to be known.

Who's In The Band?: James Banbury & Paul Morley

What do you do in the real world?
Live and dream, work and play, eat and drink, talk and sleep, buy and sell, read and write, travel and stay put, put off and act.

Describe your sound to us: Electronically natural, acoustically supernatural, fictionally real, calmly restless, reasonably serene, thoughtfully blessed, defiantly ambient, suitably relaxed, vaguely conceptual, eternally haunted, gently blurred, deftly fixed, talkative and tuneful.

How did you get together?
Paul, then Art of Noise, needed a musical, technical, imaginative someone to help remix some Art of Noise tracks, from the Seduction of Claude Debussy album - James was that someone, and the resultant remixes, for an album called Reduction, were the first ghostly hints of what would become Infantjoy.

Who are your influences?
Satie, Miles, Eno, Hannett, Human League, Throbbing Gristle, Cage, Can, Kraftwerk, Manfred Eicher, Carla Bley, Japan, Durutti Column, Talk Talk, Kate Bush.

What's the greatest lyric you've written?
Infantjoy are up to now mostly instrumental, and when they do use words don't so much sing as talk, or recite, or narrate, or rant, or whisper, or distort, or mumble... Paul wrote the lyrics for Moments in Love by the Art of Noise which distill the words of a love song down to three words - Moments in Love. He also gave Buzzcocks the title of their song Moving Away from the Pulsebeat.

What's the state of play with the band at the moment?
The Infantjoy LP Where The Night Goes is going to slowly transform itself into other material - new versions of the songs - apparatitions - are being prepared by various other collaborators for release in various forms, and a version of the album that reflects the way it is presented live, as a sort of austere, discreet but charming musical, is going to be filmed and released as a series of short films via various online mechanisms. Meanwhile, the follow up record is being recorded for later in the decade.

Where can we see you next?
We will be appearing out of nowhere wearing a look of mild surprise at the Bartok in Chalk Farm on April 28, with our special ghost star Sarah Nixey.

Who Would You Most Like To Support? 1967 Pink Floyd, Robert Wyatt, the Kronos Quartet, the Mighty Boosh or Matmos.

What's Your Ultimate Label To Be On? ECM, Mute or Bella Union.

What's the best gig you've ever been to? the best most recent one - Secret Machines,

Have You Ever Thrown A TV Out Of A Hotel Window? Only a TV Times

Would You Like To?
Possibly an iPod filled with Coldplay, Kaiser Chiefs and Embrace

Recommend One Album To Our Readers You Don't Think They Will Have Discovered.
Trio Mediaeval's Stella Maris, Mayo Thompson's Corky's Debt To His Father, Derek Bailey/Evan Parker's London Concert

Why Should Londonist Readers Go And See You?
Because for better or worse there is no other band that plays live in the way we play live - it actually is ambientertainment, plus we have a special ghost star

What's Your Favourite:
Venue To Play In London? Queen Elizabeth Hall
Venue To Go To In London? Queen Elizabeth Hall
Record Store? Rough Trade
Shop (non-music)? Magma
Market? Portobello Road, Borough
Place To People-watch? Borders
View In London? From Hungerford Bridge, from the top of Highgate Hill, right underneath the Telecom Tower
Form Of Public Transport? Walk

What Advice Would You Give Ken Livingstone?
Keep up the good work

What London Place Or Thing Would You Declare A Landmark?
Highgate Cemetery

The World Is Ending In 24 hours. How Would You Spend Your Last Day In London?
Listening to Fripp and Eno's No Pussyfooting, which freezes time.

Greatest Thing Ever To Come Out Of London?
The M1, Percy Shelley, the Royal Court Theatre, The Oval, McLaren and Westwood's Sex, Spontaneous Music Ensemble

If You Could Write A Song About London What Would It Be Called And What Kind Of Song Would It Be?
It would be called Radiant Sin, from an album we'll eventually make called The Writers Haunts - a cello laced ghostly love song, somewhere between Nick Drake and Sigur Ros, about the time Rimbaud and Verlaine spent together in London in 1873, when they walked on the Heath, saw Karl Marx speak above the Hibernia tavern in Old Compton Street, rode on the brand new underground from Baker Street to the Wapping Docks, and took advantage of the heating in the British museum

and finally

Sum Up London In A Word... Money

interview by Talia
londonist.com

The front page of allmusic.com with it's artist spotlight shining on Infantjoy.
The Infantjoy allmusic.com entry is here.

Infantjoy is an unexpected but apt collaboration between James Banbury and Paul Morley. Banbury, a multi-instrumentalist, has long been a Luke Haines associate, going back to the first Auteurs album, and has logged studio time with several other musicians. Morley, a journalist and author, was behind a lot of the concepts and some of the sounds that came from the ZTT label during the mid '80s; the last time he was seen doing something musical was in the late '90s, when he was holding a microphone and a sledgehammer onstage with the rest of a re-convened Art of Noise, who were supporting The Seduction of Claude Debussy. The steady Where the Night Goes could be seen as a follow-up to that uneven album, even though Morley is the lone common factor and Banbury supplies the music. This disc takes inspiration from another composer, Erik Satie, who is credited with "Haunting, etc," and he is felt throughout here as much as Debussy was on the Art of Noise album, albeit in a slightly more concealed way, from the echoing piano notes and the spaces between them to the deeply conceptualized nature of the whole thing. Predominantly instrumental, Where the Night Goes is an ambient album that functions equally well in the foreground and the background. It remains intensely rhythmic when the tempos are slow and the beats are nonexistent, creating its own world while occasionally hinting at other things from the past. "Composure"'s insistent stateliness could spiral off into Manuel Göttsching's "E2-E4" or Kraftwerk's "Trans-Europe Express." Before "Nearing the Sun" works itself into a series of noisy collisions between all of its elements, its cold crunching beat resembles early Boards of Canada. An appropriate cover of Japan's "Ghosts," featuring the frosty comfort of Black Box Recorder's Sarah Nixey, is right in the middle of the album; it's neither as startling nor as stark as the original, but its twinkling jack-in-the-box melody, flickering noise fragments, and droning/drifting strings give the song a new angle that also happens to discreetly slip into the album's scheme. (Japan themselves were haunted by Satie.) Morley's text in the booklet is a helpful guide and can fill your head with thoughts and ideas as you listen, but you needn't read it -- or know anything about Satie, Banbury, or Morley -- to enjoy the trip.
written by Andy Kellman
From allmusic.com

Sarah Nixey - Collecting Thoughts

Top of the Pops has, down the years, produced many a memorable sight. Kurt Cobain blatantly miming Smells Like Teen Spirit; All About Eve's technical difficulties; Chaka Khan's big black bird costume.

Right up there with them was the incongruous manifestation, in 2000, of misanthropic Auteurs lynchpin Luke Haines, a serial nearly-hit wonder, and sometime Jesus & Mary Chain member and absinthe importer John Moore, in the top 20 as Black Box Recorder with a little ditty about the birds and the bees called The Facts of Life.

On vocals, whispering about pubescent boys and girls in relationship dramas was a quintessential English waif - Sarah Nixey.

That was the dawn of a new millennium. Half a decade later, Nixey is emerging from the creative chrysalis of Black Box Recorder as a fully fledged solo artist. It's been a while. What's she been up to?

To discover this I meet Sarah in the salubrious surrounds of The Kilburn pub, prior to her first solo London show, upstairs at the Luminaire. My new fangled digital recording device picks up the sound of people drinking, talking and scraping chairs about, but doesn't pick up my questions at all. Yet through all the racket, Sarah's distinctive, cut-glass tones are precise and recorded in their entirety.
"I had all these messages on my website asking where I'd been, saying that I'd not been around for ages, saying I'd been a real dark horse - which I quite like," offers Sarah. "I've been hibernating."

While in hibernation she's been penning her own material. "The songs are very different to Black Box Recorder," she enthuses. Joining her in hibernation was producer James Banbury, latterly keyboardist for Black Box Recorder and cellist with The Auteurs. For her solo material, Banbury's role is well defined. "I write the songs and give them to James, and he fleshes them out."

In her erstwhile 'pop collective' Haines and Moore were the writers. Sarah explains her playful approach to Black Box Recorder's beginnings: "John seemed interesting, playing the saw... I knew he had a history with The Jesus & Mary Chain, and I found him quite appealing," says the band's self-styled Trojan horse. "Luke and John really hit it off, but it was a pure chance meeting that led to something happening between the three of us. They sent me a fax saying, sing a song for us, we've got a studio on hold for this weekend, it's called Girl Singing In The Wreckage, it's not as dark as it seems, and we'll make you famous, they said. I thought it was really funny."

"We kind of look like Abba. There are two guys and two girls and a glitterball above our heads." - Sarah Nixey, in a moment of hilarity, describes her live stage act...

Their first album, England Made Me, was followed by The Facts of Life within a couple of years. The title track made the top 20. "The intention behind The Facts of Life was to have a hit single and they succeeded very well," recalls Sarah. "I'm sure there were some people who bought that single and then bought the record and... weren't really expecting that! Luke and John were enjoying every minute of it."

By the release of the band's fourth and last record, 2003's Passionoia, Sarah had started to write her own songs. "When you've got two really good songwriters writing for you you become quite lazy," says Sarah. And they really were writing about her. "They were writing for me and about me, about my life," she explains. "I felt like the songs belonged to me. They had the writing credits but I was singing them. On some level I was the muse. I would share some anecdotes with them and then they'd come back, rather embarrassingly, hiding their faces, with a song. I quite liked that."

Black Box Recorder isn't officially dead - instead their state of being is described as "comatose". "There hasn't been an official split, but I can't see anything happening in the near future," says Sarah. "After Passionoia things fell apart with the record company. Luke was off doing solo stuff and John was off doing a solo record and I felt that it was probably the right time to do my own thing as well. I knew James (from Black Box Recorder) and we recorded an album together."

I ask her about the sound of her new material. What do her songs sound like? It's a question well able to dismay many an artist, but Sarah's response is swift. "They are pop songs. My vocal style is similar (to her Black Box Recorder output), but stronger I think. I wanted to play around with the idea that I'd be singing on this record, rather than whispering on it. It needs to be sung."

There's soon to be a debut album to demonstrate why. "It is finished," says Sarah. "I've just got to work out exactly what to put on it, where things are going to go." And is she excited? A measured response: "The exciting stuff has already happened - the writing and the recording is the bit that I really enjoy," she says. "Now comes all the promotional stuff... but doing gigs is great, I love doing the live shows."

She has a particular soft spot for the Luminaire, the north London venue opened in March 2005 that would, within 12 months, go on to be named Time Out Venue of the Year. "I really love this venue. I live around here - the sound is fantastic, and I can walk home! It's becoming something because of the man who's managing it. Andy Inglis has been working all hours getting it a good name, and now it has a good name, known for having the best sound in London as well."

I ponder what her audience at the Luminaire should expect of her live act. "There are poppy moments, my disco anthem..." she says. "We kind of look like Abba! There are two guys and two girls and a glitterball above our heads."

Black Box Recorder's lyrical safe/horror juxtaposition, defining sometimes unpalatable aspects of Englishness yet always from an affectionate point of view, defined their songs. Do Sarah's lyrics on her new material continue in a similar vein? "The subject matter is whatever I'm reading, whatever I'm watching on TV, mixed with autobiographical details," she says. "I can never go away from English life. It's where I live and I am very English."

Her first (download only) single, The Collector, is about a boy who collects butterflies and then goes on to collect women. It was inspired by the novel of the same name by John Fowles, naturally enough a writer from the south-east of England. In the book an uneducated and withdrawn man collects butterflies before imprisoning an art student in his cellar as part of his collection. Sarah has a visual reminder of the book. "There's a painting I have in my living room, of a boy holding a scalpel to a butterfly." But hang on - didn't she say she was making pop music? "It's a fairly upbeat track, quite pop actually!" she insists, before dissolving into laughter.

I ask her which instruments she plays on her solo record. "I sing," comes the response. "I play guitar really badly, which is how I write my songs, but I wouldn't inflict that on anyone. I can just about string some chords together... I'm learning piano at the moment, but I like to go on stage and sing rather than strap a guitar on."

As to musical influences, she's happy to namedrop David Sylvian, front man of Japan, whose new project Nine Horses Sarah tells me she read about on musicOMH.com. She'd covered the Japan track Ghosts for Infantjoy's new record. James Banbury (him again) and talking head and music writer Paul Morley, the brains behind Infantjoy, are also behind the "boutique label" Service AV that put out The Collector digitally. "I love that track - it's really the only Japan track I remember. They were a funny band," she muses.

But when it comes to her music, Sarah Nixey is in charge. "There are no deadlines, which is quite liberating," she tells me. "I'm not even being managed. It's incredibly empowering and actually quite addictive." And with her first album laid down, what might the future hold for her? "I'd like to do something quite fast, orchestral even," he says. "Banbury can sort anything out. He's an incredibly accomplished musician, produces, programs, is musical director."

Her gig that evening consisted of a half hour set of glacial, almost pop music, with an edge to it. The Collector and Masquerade were amongst the memorable moments. Curiously, the stage was decked out with vertical flourescent tubes - reassuringly, her stage act for her first London gig resembled Abba not a jot. But a sense of a milestone passed in Sarah Nixey's quest for artistic fulfilment was palpable.

written by Michael Hubbard at MusicOMH.com.

99ers FM in Bandung, Indonesia love Sarah Nixey's The Collector.
Look: Number 4 this week!


NinetyNiners FM

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.
---------------------------------------------------------------
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

The Islington Academy's polished floor and minimalist furniture - crash barrier and wall-hugging perimeter shelf is the sum of it - suits Nixey's cut-glass electro-precision style. With ex-Auteurs man James Banbury - now of Infantjoy - controlling things from behind a bank of keyboards and gizmos, Sarah was joined by a backing vocalist and drummer.

Centre stage and looking stylish, Nixey looked as beautiful as, but less contrived than, Alison Goldfrapp - whose pronounciation she takes after. The set opened with Love And Exile, a sedate, atmospheric number that would characterise the set. Nixey's songs are melodic but cold, not things to jump about to but to listen to and savour. Amongst the most memorable was Masquerade, one of the set's more upbeat numbers, while closer and recent download single The Collector displayed her knack for literary allusion in lyric writing.

written by Michael Hubbard for Music OMH.

As I suspect I’ve mentioned elsewhere on quite a few occasions, I used to have a rather hefty crush on Sarah Nixey back when I was 16 or so. It was the springtime of Black Box Recorder’s The Facts Of Life album and her voice was everywhere in my head, cold, cutting, smirking—“experimentation, familiarisation; it’s all a nature-walk.” Happy times.

Anyway, BBR ran their course a couple of years ago, and her first solo material sneaked out at the end of last year. It’s rather good, too, in a kind of understated English electro-pop fashion. This is her first time writing her own lyrics, and so the tone is slightly lighter than when she was the mouthpiece for Luke Haines and John Moore (i.e. she doesn’t seem to want to kill anyone). It’s a tale of “a boy who never smiled,” collecting butterflies in order to preserve them behind glass for their own protection. I’d imagine the analogy’s obvious enough.

The chorus is the clincher: “You cast your net and pull me in; you always win this game.” The maturity of tone, the anger and the pity—you don’t get that shit with Sophie Ellis-Bextor. Then again, you could probably dance to Sophie Ellis-Bextor. Score draw, then.

written by William B. Swygart

infantjoy - where the night goes

a project that involves paul 'i used to be part of the art of noise you know' morley and  james banbury (the auteurs) is obviously going to get some interest from old ztt heads like myself. so, when the album first got spun @ ireallylovemusic hq to say the effect was one of indifference would be an understatement. 57 minutes of sublime piano heavy melodies and deep studio electronic pulses which gave little in the way of a pop thrill that i anticipated.

where was the twisted irony that i was wanting ? where was the cutting edge experimentation ? where was the fun ?

then i read the press release, and found that the album is a revised update of the much cited erik satie musics with a backbone of a concept spread across the 12 tracks. to quote the details provided :

'each track takes place at a certain point during the night .. the album begins just after 11 o'clock at night and ends a few minutes before 9 in the morning')'

subsequently, the following listens became more understandable, as i appreciated the reasons and ideas for this rather special experiment, especially when enjoyed through headphones, which is a must to fully connect with the music on offer.

for the majority of the album  slow drifting melodies collide with beautiful calm dominating during such tracks as the opener 'the departure', or 'application 1', whereas in other places, there are indeed subtle pushings of the aural envelop, for example, during the broken vocals of 'just before midnight', where a laid back trip hop groove holds together the vocoders, piano and modern subsonic bleeps in such a way that you don't notice the overall chilling disturbance factor that permeates throughout, or, the sharply focussed and out of place guitar line that breaks the midi-clicked peace in 'nearing the sun'.

'someone was saying' actually features pauls vocals in a strangely enjoyable distorted manner of course, but the distinctive tones are definitely his, and match the synthetic sound that surrounds the largely indecipherable wordplay, though it must be stressed, pauls presence on this track is a rare feature for this album as most of the record is purely instrumental (acoustic or electronic). another highlight, 'ghosts', a cover version of an old japan track, features vocals by sarah nixey from black box recorder. her breathy vocals add a welcome human element to the ambient tricks and wooshes to stunning efffect. suspect that paul and james will want to use her talents more for the projects second album, should the chance arise.

of course, there is little more to add for this album, other than if you want to hear some beautiful piano music enhanced by modern studio production with dips into orbital's way with melody, pete namlooks ambient fax records classics, or indeed any of the downtempo masters such as massive attack, then this album should be definitely on your post christmas lookout list.

just don't expect to laugh much.

sleep tight.

written by mark e from ireallylovemusic

*Infantjoy. Where the Night Goes
Talking of concepts and music actually living up to them… this Satie-honoring venture from Mr. Morley and friend… surprised me. And I prefer their invocation of "Kate Bush" (from an alternate universe where she fronted Japan) to the actual real-world resurrection (Well, so far anyway--promise to try harder. How rockist, though: an album you have to work at, persevere past the tame surface to appreciate the depth!)

from: Blissblog

Sarah Nixey – The Collector (Service AV)

It's easy to forget what a distinctive and haunting voice Sarah Nixey has, a clipped and imposing wind that could freeze an ocean. With the indomitably sarcastic Luke Haines and John Moore behind her in Black Box Recorder it often felt a little too masters and puppet, though Nixey shines here as an independent voice. This is more pure pop with a hint of melodrama rather than the arch clinical and curmudgeonly BBR and it suits her; it's more Kylie and less wily, and while the narrative is a two dimensional metaphor about a lepidopterist casting nets and stealing beauty, the simplicity works even if the concept feels a little worn.
playlouder.com bunch of 45s