…”Marrying digital technologies with found sounds and otherworldly vocals, (Rainforth’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 inspirations—into her own shape-shifting style. Listen closely, though, and you’ll hear another side of her: a soft soprano background coo, diffuse as a pastel-colored mist... her airy tone lends a uniquely spooky quality to the song, like a ghost haunting the dancehall. It’s a quality you won’t find in any of their contemporaries." Philip Sherburne - Pitchfork

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 - Rwd Fwd

"Rainforth sang a series of songs that set her bitter-sweet voice like a high-wire ballerina above a deeply woven multi-track and keyboard accompaniment". – review of gig, Islington Assembly Rooms, October 2014

'ethereal, pushing boundaries below sea level; high-end lo-fi’ Jeff Earth

![rainforth]

Maximum Joy were the brainchild of vocalist Janine Rainforth and Tony Wafter, who were later joined by ex-Pop Group members John Waddington and Dan Catsis. The music is reminiscent of the Pop Group's groundbreaking work but delivered in a more accessible vein, taming the nastier elements. Rainforth has a smooth, even alto that probably would have been singing British prog-folk 10 years earlier and trip-hop 10 years later. It even sounds pleasant when they run it backward at the end of "White & Green Place", though she does get in a couple of blood-curdling screams that scared the shit out of my cats on “Stretch (99 Version)". Joe Tangari – Pitchfork review - Unlimited - Maximum Joy Crippled Dick Hot Wax

While their compatriots may have generated more attention, the rather more subtle Maximum Joy have perhaps worn rather more well. Janine Rainforth’s vision and vocals at this distance sets them apart, and maybe provide a more recognisable link to the leading players of the ‘90s Bristol creative renaissance. Tangents review – Unlimited ) “Silent Street” is the B-side and is definitely the track to check. Super mellow, that perfect intersection of dub and post-punk without some cheese fake reggae, just that touch of weeded bass.. Janine Rainforth was the perfect non-singer, lightly gorgeous voice but no impulse to shake it around, just like it glide out. I don’t know, this song is pretty you will like it. –
Chiona Nnadi, Vogue Fashion Editor,/Matthew Schipper Editor, The Fader July 2010

Maximum Joy: Unlimited (1979-83 [2005], Crippled Dick Hot Wax): As best I recall -- I no longer have the relevant vinyl to check -- the Pop Group was a post-punk ensemble far better in theory than in praxis. But I guess they were more infamous than the Glaxo Babies, who contributed as many musicians to this group, so the line here is that Maximum Joy, like Pigbag and Rip Rig + Panic, is part of the Pop Group's diaspora. One thing those groups do have in common is a fondness for horns, not just to punch up the sharp angles of their dub-mangled beat, but also to inch into jazz. But only Maximum Joy had Janine Rainforth, who played violin and clarinet, and gave them a voice that suggests a more generous comparison, like one of the Slits backed by the Gang of Four. A- by Tom Hull I think I could argue that Maximim Joy and the people around them would also help lead to the post-post-punk Bristol sound that lead to the creative and commercial successes of Massive Attack, Tricky, Portishead, Bjork's debut album (she spent a lot of time in Bristol in the early 90s), and the reggae vs jazz sound of Bristol's Jungle scene (see Roni Size's Full Cycle label group and Reprazent). Anyway, Maximum Joy is damn hot for so many reasons, ‘Music for Robots’ review 2005

Singer Janine Rainforth might have been a vocal doppelganger for the Slits’ Ari Up, and the undeserving space between Slits albums could in a sense be filled by the music Maximum Joy produced in that span. Dusted review - Unlimited

Elsewhere, Rainforth's passion seeps through: In the Air is an early example of the naive, childish enthusiasm now heard in Bjork Chloe Sasson review Unlimited 2006

[at Rupert Goldsworthy's exhibition London 2014]