Jim Noir

Jim Noir crafts a junkshop pop style that blends an easygoing array of influences, drawing on the Beatles’ melodic approach, Kraftwerk’s sparse electronic textures, library music, playground funk, and the novelty tunes that dominated radio during the 1970s. All of his material is written and tracked solo, and his earliest tracks caught the attention of brands such as Adidas and Target because of their straightforward, upbeat melodies. The 2006 release Tower of Love stands as a prime example of the freewheeling pop that defined the middle of that decade, and subsequent projects have largely followed the same blueprint, although Finnish Line from 2014 shifts toward guitar-driven British Invasion sounds while A.M. Jazz, issued in 2019, along with its companion EP Deep Blue View from 2021, incorporates elements of light techno, orchestral easy listening, and soft rock.

Born Alan Roberts in a Manchester suburb, he started making music young. With a friend called Batfinks he formed a duo that entertained schoolmates by recreating techno numbers from 808 State and Altern 8 on toy keyboards. A school production introduced them to the Beatles, prompting Noir to pursue classic pop songs built on electronic foundations. He soon went solo, handling every instrument as he would throughout his career, and put out the EP A Bird Sings in the Wool in 2003. Local imprint My Dad took notice, issuing three further EPs across 2004 and 2005 that spread his bright pop style more widely. Those recordings formed the core of his debut album Tower of Love, also dated 2005, which added a handful of fresh cuts and appeared first on My Dad before Atlantic Records licensed it for the U.K. and Japan and Barsuk handled the U.S. edition. Exposure grew when “Tower of Love” and “Eenie Meany” were placed in Adidas spots that aired heavily during the 2006 World Cup; another track, “My Patch,” later featured in Ginsters advertising tied to Target’s 2017 holiday push and served as the theme for the game Little Big Planet. While those placements circulated he finished a follow-up, Jim Noir, which My Dad and Barsuk released in 2008 and which broadened his homemade aesthetic even though it yielded no further commercial syncs.

He next issued a run of EPs collectively known as The Noir Club, sending subscribers a monthly installment of lo-fi poptronics across sixteen months; the installments mixed brand-new material with previously unreleased older pieces. The venture signaled a move toward self-releasing, a route he continued with the 2012 album Jimmy’s Show and the 2014 set Finnish Line, the latter emphasizing Beatles-inspired songwriting while increasing guitar presence and reducing electronic textures. After that record he paused work under the Jim Noir name. During the hiatus he collaborated with ex-Alfie guitarist Ian Smith, who had also played in Noir’s touring group, on the electronic outfit FAX; he also recorded an ’80s-styled electro album under the alias Granada Personnel Recovery, contributed to Whyte Horses’ 2016 release Pop or Not, and supplied two songs to the Eaten by Lions soundtrack. Returning to Jim Noir, he reverted to his original lo-fi method of capturing whatever instruments were nearby and improvising in the moment. The resulting A.M. Jazz, colored by soft rock and light techno, came out on Dooks Records in early 2020. In the twelve months that followed he revisited those sessions, retrieving unused fragments and refining them into warmer, more polished synthetic arrangements. The six-track collection Deep Blue View appeared on Dooks in August 2021.