Janine Rainforth

Lead singer and original co-founder of post punkers Maximum Joy, Janine Rainforth returned to performing her music in public in 2014 after an absence of more than two decades. She records and produces her music from her home studio set up in East London. She recently re-formed Maximum Joy to appear at Simple Things, and from there recorded a new album, PEACE,  and continued playing live.

Janine was interviewed by The Guardian Interview in March 2019
She released her first solo single “Have Brave Heart” on her own label in May 2015.

“Rainforth’s new work comprises rich, blurry lullabies which flow sonorously through space, dripping searching keys over shuffling rhythms and, of course, Rainforth’s piercing but pining vocal. It’s a sweeping, ambient sound which recalls another strand of 80s alternative in the otherworldly ethereal wave of Liz Fraser’s work with This Mortal Coil, or even the contemporary avant-pop of Zola Jesus or Glasser. As Rainforth forges a new musical future, it’s important not to divorce it from her fearless and catalytic past.. Releasing these long-gestated ideas into the public sphere, and especially returning to the stage after over two decades, took some guts..” Geraint David – Crack Magazine

…”Marrying digital technologies with found sounds and otherworldly vocals, she’s dabbling in ambient crescendos and synth-laden melodies to maximum effect.”
M Magazine

.. Janine Rainforth …. the perfect non-singer, lightly gorgeous voice but no impulse to shake it around, just like it glide out…. Matthew Schnipper, The Fader

”It’s singer Janine Rainforth that best embodies Maximum Joy’s exuberance: Having co-founded the group when she was just 18 years old, she channeled her inspiration…into her own shape-shifting style…she belts it out in the manner of her mentors, slicing into the midrange frequencies with a tone poised at the midway point between speech, screaming, and singing. Listen closely, though, and you’ll hear another side of her: a soft soprano background coo, diffuse as a pastel-colored mist.. It’s a quality you won’t find in any of their contemporaries.” Best reissue -Pitchfork – review of “I Can’t Stand It Here On Quiet Night” Sept 2017

With Janine aged 18 at the helm as vocalist , writer and co-founder, Maximum Joy were formed – they released a number of cult groove classics including Stretch, Silent Street and White and Green Place. The interest in their music hasn’t stopped – so when Janine was approached by Simple Things in 2015 asking them to perform the time was right and she reformed the band, along with 2 other founder members including Charlie Llewellin and also recruited some new members to make up the new line-up. Since then she formed a new outfit MXMJoY.

Rainforth has a new solo release in the pipeline.

“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.” Kiran Sande – Blackest Ever Black – “I Can’t Stand it Here On Quiet Nights” RewindFwd