Cardiff's Joy Of Sex released their first EP, as our first campaign back in early 08 we helped promote it with zero budget, we started this PR journey with only 20 initial EPs, a handful of emails and a load press addresses. We came up with some good results.
Joy of sex got airplay on Adam Walton's Radio Wales show, Bethan Elfyn's Radio One show, Earwax podcast and GTFM.
They got loads of great reviews:
Scan from Buzz Cardiff Listings magazine, written by Noel Gardner sometime of the NME:
Scan from an Artrocker Live review
From Subba-Cultcha:
Their name is such an obvious gag i'm amazed that someone hasn't already thought of it. Musically - it's spiky, minimalist, arty and goes off in unexpected directions and the interplay between the 3 vocalists brings to mind a fusion of Prinzhorn Dance School and Wire. (CM)
From Another Form Of Relief:
Exactly when did Cardiff become the music capital of the country? It seems to have slowly crept into that position, but somehow it's producing band after band of great music. This week's offering is Joy of Sex, a three-piece who like "short songs, rhythm, repetition, noise", all things I can appreciate.
December, Month of Plenty starts with slowly, and just when you start to think it isn't really up to much, it kicks in properly. Distortion is everywhere, the vocals suddenly don't care and it generally goes all over the place. It doesn't even come close to troubling the two minute barrier, and when it's over, you just end up pressing play once again. I'm not going to hail Joy of Sex as the greatest thing ever just yet, but the potential is certainly there.
From RockMidgets:
Illustrating that there's a hell of a lot more to the South Wales music scene than just a sea of generic post-hardcore and metal, Cardiff-based trio Joy of Sex are one of the most intriguing propositions to emerge from the Welsh capital for some time. Blending three-pronged vocals, drum machines and taut post-punk guitars, listening to their self-titled debut EP it's not hard to imagine Joy of Sex becoming firm fashionista favourites in the not too distant future. The rickety 'December, Month of Plenty' may open proceedings, but it's the skewed rhythms of 'There Are No Giants' that burns brightest of all four tracks with its echoes of latter day Dischord, while the electro-tinged 'Red Rocket' proves that the band are no mere one trick ponies. A promising foundation to build upon.
A weird one from Music-News:
'The Strokes'. Some would say they're slightly predictable and boring. Even those who claim to be fans of the band would admit in recent years they have become a tad predictable (read f**king rubbish).
Thankfully something somewhat benevolent is smiling upon your furry faces as The 'Joy Of Sex' mince into view. Now some would view mincing as a negative way to describe the appearance of a band, but to be honest in this case it's the only valid word you could use to describe music that mixes the straight up rock of 'The Strokes' with the awkwardness of early 'Bloc Party'.
If you didn't know where 'There are no Giants' came from you'd assume it was a the kind of Strokes B-side that is better than most of their album material, until about 57 seconds in, where it turns into a difficult unfriendly beast with a fantastic bass line.
There's a musical assurance here that defies the lyrical context, which itself smells of the irrational insecurities many 'creative types' feel. Thankfully the music 'The Joy of Sex' create, only very rarely strays into the realms of complete rubbish i.e. the last 44 seconds of 'A Briefing'. Cut that out and that song is sorted.
'Red Rocket' is a jagged beast that turns away from the Strokes, delving into a more difficult Kyuss owned arena. It's fuzzy overridden guitars face off against bowel wrenching bass. These people clearly have an understanding of how vocals can lie over a beat as both the male and female voices flow over the top of sharp edged beats like water over a cliff. One criticism though. The girl can obviously sing, let her.
'The Joy of Sex' are, overall a dream to be with, their understated Strokey partly Kyuss jams present an option that is fantastically palatable. Enjoy.
A great one from Organ:
JOY OF SEX – Is it something in the air, is scratchy wrong pop week? More things to say? "We agree on several things" they say, "short songs, rhythm, repetition, noise, form meeting function..." and yes they have all that nailed down and in place along with their scrape and bang and their joy of sex. A threesome, two boy one girl action and a fresh perspective, don't got expecting any kind of mere novelty – "equality, newness..." and tunes of plenty buried underneath the furs, put of the lights tonight is it December already? I guess we should talk of Art Brut and The Fall and Wire and jagged smiles and thought we had all worked out... everything is good, nothing ruined, a fine fine demo.
From Joy Collective:
Cardiff post-punk, art-pop outfit Joy of Sex have released their debut four track EP, and here's a review!
Opening with what sounds like a surreal Christmas Carol that quickly turns into an Art Brut meets The Pixies indie-growler, this debut EP from Cardiff based Joy of Sex is a speedy, experimental and pleasing little record.
Second track 'There Are No Giants' is the standout here, flailing around from laconic verse to squawked chorus barked over stripped down instrumentation. They have a similar post-Frank Blank to sound to fellow Cardiffians The Victorian English Gentlemens Club, also administering a slightly schizoid tendency to their song structures. 'Briefing' has a more erratic post-punk edge to it, with the lead vocals becoming practically seagull-like.
Closer 'Red Rocket' growls over a staccato bassline, boy/girl vocals and drum beat all insistently striking at once until a searching The Cure-like guitar line leads us out of the track.
At four tracks in just over nine minutes it's an extremely brief release, but suggests that this three-piece has enough inventiveness and spark up their sleeves to make them worthy of your attention.
A German one we still have yet to translate. If you can help, feel free:
killerband? bestimmt nicht. und einen hype um die drei briten gibt es auch nicht und wird es in absehbarer zeit auch nicht geben. und wenn ich mir den langen anschaue, dann hat der seine beste zeit auch schon hinter sich. doch die ideen, die joy of sex haben, reichen immerhin für eine ep (erschien am 18.08., gibts auf konzerten oder auf anfrage). das reduzierte, die momente der täuschung sind das besondere an diesem vordergründig punkigen sound. zu dritt singen sie, vereint kloppen sie auf ein echtes und ein elektronisches drumkit ein. die straffe gitarre brauchts für ein paar dringende einspritzer, den bass fürs treiben. wire oder p.i.l. darf man hier schon hören.
From Sweeping The Nation:
Haven't had a Cardiff band for a while, so let's have one now. Joy Of Sex are a multi-gendered trio who sound like a wired, boggle-eyed take on the fuzzily taut Pixies/Wire dynamic with criss-crossing vocals, wrecked song structures and seeming stream of conscious while still meaningful lyrics, and if all that sounds familiar to long time STN readers then it should be clarified that they do indeed share a kinship with The Victorian English Gentlemens Club. And frankly, two bands mining this seam (not that they're a straight ripoff by any means, we hasten to add) is far better than none.
From Indie Dad:
Joy Of Sex – December, Month Of Plenty is an unusual construction sounding like a singing Christmas card from The Fall. If carol singers came to my door with something like this they'd be more likely to depart with a stipend, it's something of a fragment but there is no need – in my book – to expand on an idea beyond it's natural life. It could easily be subtitled Winter Of Discontent or Ode To SADs as it has a hang dog wassail quality to it. After the accappella chorus we get the sort of basic instrumental guitar/drum that would be at home (and as basic as) a Half Man Half Biscuit track. And that's fine - it doesn't require more. It manages to have a vague menace as well as an oblique humour (December here is a wasteland of beatings, strikes, and cold lonely death from starvation – but manages not to be a bit depressing). Possibly the perfect introduction to a band as it makes you wonder what the Hell the rest of their songs are like. Sometimes you know a band are "my kind of people" and this is so with Joy Of Sex, I'll be playing this at Christmas much to my partners disgust. Half Man Half Brandy Snap.
And one in French, which Matt has translated:
Comme annoncé il y a quelque temps, voici le billet sur le premier EP des brillamment nommés Joy of Sex sur leur propre label Robot Architect !
Il devient de plus en plus difficile de trouver son bonheur parmi la horde de groupes d'influence art punk ou post-punk ( et même maths rock d'ailleurs ) qui s'échine avec leurs mélodies ultra-bright et leur production à la javel à nous faire croire que ce sont des genres pour bonne soeur. Heureusement Joy of Sex nous rappelle que le plaisir ne se trouve pas toujours dans un lit aux draps bien propres et repassés...
Quatre morceaux courts, à la basse qui tape, aux guitares excitées et aux chants ( cris ? ) qui se répondent de façon quasi tribale, voilà la musique de Joy of Sex. Ca sent sous les bras. Ca rappelle Wire ou PiL pas pour une ressemblance formelle mais par la capacité à faire à la fois sale, joyeux ( bon, c'est peut-être pas le terme ) et accrocheur. C'est festif, entraînant et décalé, un peu comme Art Brut sans le côté ostensiblement déconneur. Ca ne passera sans doute jamais sur les radios bien pensantes. Mais ça fait beaucoup de bien !
Pour vous faire une petite idée, le premier morceau 'December, Month Of Plenty' est téléchargeable gratuitement par ici ou sur last FM ( où vous pourrez également écouter les trois autres morceaux ) !
Results: Joy of Sex are now releasing singles under the I Blame The Parents record label alongside local cult act Gindrinker.
