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 tuunng, 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.