Stretch

Stretch (12" version)

Dance to the Best of ESG

Erase You

7 Dance of the Mermaids

Refried Ectoplasm [Switched On Volume 2]

French Disko

Resolutionary (Songs 1979-1982)

Launderette

Brean Down

Moving

No One's Little Girl

The Strange Idols Pattern and Other Short Stories / Ignite the Seven Cannons

Primitive Painters

My first encounter with Maximum Joy was around 2001 when Chris Farrell .. boss of the Idle Hands shop and label there (and still fresher-faced than most) - played me the song ‘Silent Street / Silent Dub’, the lesser-spotted B-side of their Stretch 12”. .. Quite honestly, I've never heard anything that comes close - before or since. Janine Rainforth’s singing, probably my all-time favourite vocal take, seems to combine an ageless English folk sensibility with both a teenager's innocence/insouciance and a smoked-out drowsy jazz maturity well beyond her years. Charlie Llewlin’s drumming is broken beat some 20 years ahead of schedule, Dan Catsis’s bassline is heavy-as, and Tony Wrafter’s free-soaring trumpet channels Don Cherry with aplomb. All bound together and ultra-intensified by Dick O’Dell’s vertiginous dub mix.
Kiran Sande- Blackest Ever Black 

Formed in 1979, Bristol band, Maximum Joy was originated by Janine Rainforth (singer /violin/clarinet) and Tony Wrafter (saxophonist/trumpeter, previously of another Bristol band, Glaxo Babies), Charlie Llewellin (drummer – previously in Glaxo Babies), Dan Catsis (bass – also previously in Glaxo Babies) and John Waddington (guitar – previously in the Pop Group) were also founder members. . In the wake of the infamous Pop Group and taking from the hot bed of musical influences driving the Bristol scene at the time – punk, reggae, funk, soul and Jazz- the band developed their own unique version of the post-punk Bristol sound. Sometimes soothing, occasionally challenging, their groove combined funk, punk, soulful jazz and wild impro with daring and, often, panache. 

Fuelled by Thatcherism, inner city race riots and growing protest amongst young and old, Maximum Joy’s songs and melodies were about getting conscious and waking up to life, « …stay positive, stay plus, pulsate, pulsate no terminate, no end, it’s only just beginning… » ('Stretch'). 

They were quickly signed by Y records, distributed by Rough Trade. Maximum Joy’s first single, 'Stretch' came out in 1981. It was a big underground seller in Europe, Japan and the States, spent weeks in the NME Indie charts and became an underground Post Punk/Funk classic in the fashionable night clubs of New York when the disco re-mix was released on New Yorks '99 Records'. The band’s next single was White and Green Place the slick production was orchestrated by maestro Y Record’s Dick O’dell, string quartet and all, nothing but the real thing! 

Kev (Ebo) Evans joined as bassist and the band went on to record the jazzy, ethereal All in the Air. In 1982, the band brought out their LP, 'Station MXJY', fit was overseen by producer extraordinaire, Adrian Sherwood. Later that year they recruited Nellee Hooper to add to the line up,  Trumpeter Jeremy Hirsh also joined the band at this time. 
Maximum Joy’s last single was a haunting version of Timmy Thomas classic 'Why Can’t We Live Together', on the flip side of which was 'Man Of Tribes'. Produced by producer and prolific musician in his own right Dennis Bovell, he dug the B side song so much that he joined Janine on the choruses and contributed to making it one of Maximum Joy’s best recorded tracks.  The finally released version featured singer Peta on the A'side as Janine had left the band then – (the original version featuring Janine’s vocal was re-mastered recently and released in Japan as a bonus track on Station MXJY on Beatink). 
John Peel was a fan, they recorded a couple of BBC Radio 1 sessions for him & Kid Jensen and they toured Europe extensively.
May the joy be with you!
Any further questions: mail@londonfieldrecordings.com

Stretch (12" version)

Maximum Joy

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