Planningtorock is Janine Rostron, a musician and visual artist from Bolton who’s been based in Berlin for the last ten years.
Ahead of the release of her forthcoming DFA label debut, W, Planningtorock releases a 9” single (yes, you read that right!) and announces rare UK live dates.
A ball of energy that landed by happy accident in the middle of the art, fashion and music worlds, Planningtorock has allowed Janine to travel the globe performing at gig venues and arts events, with recent collaborations including the opera score for Tomorrow, in a Year with The Knife and Mt Sims.
On this taster for the W album, ‘The Breaks’ introduces the melancholic saxophone depths and euphoric synth string highs contained in a single Janine Rostron song – epic in scale yet deeply personal, strikingly alien but weirdly familiar, and always daring and original. She stretches sounds and curdles her voice, a queasy rococo rush that has an intoxicating quality.
‘Doorway’ seethes with a throbbing electronic pulse and jabbing pizzicatos, unveiling the unsettling yet heady allure we can expect from W.
Planningtorock has built a formidable reputation for her theatrical solo show. “I’ve come to terms with the fact that what I do has a big percentage of elements that you just don’t know,” she says, “and that’s what makes it interesting.” Multimedia and sometimes kind of multi-gender, Planningtorock seems to raise more questions than Janine often has answers for, which tickles her.
W, the follow-up to Planningtorock’s 2006 debut Have It All, is released on May 16.
Live dates:
13th May Brighton, The Great Escape
16th May W album launch London, Metal Works
17th May London Rough Trade East Instore
17th July London @ Lovebox
Published on 09 May 2011 by Wayne Feltham
