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.
extra extra :
16/09 new album - with
exclusive : interview with james banbury