Band of Holy Joy/Cathode Ray - (With Roy Moller), Sebright Arms, London, 15/4/2016

by Admin

published: 10 / 4 / 2016

Band of Holy Joy/Cathode Ray - (With Roy Moller), Sebright Arms, London, 15/4/2016

Pennyblackmusic presents three acts from the Edinburgh-based label – The Band of Holy Joy, The Cathode Ray and Roy Moller – at the Sebright Arms on April 15th

Article

Pennyblackmusic is bringing the influential Edinburgh-based label Stereogram Recordings to London and three of its best acts –The Band of Holy Joy, The Cathode Ray and Roy Moller – on one stage. THE BAND OF HOLY JOY Forever changing, consistently unique yet, always somehow the same, the Band Of Holy Joy began life as gutter chansoniers using junk shop instruments to propagate a brute romantic madly literate form of dispossessed urban folk music.  Since then the band have scaled a few heights fallen down in one or two gutters, broken up, glued themselves together, toured the world, released a fair few albums and fully explored other media by presenting audio visual song plays and site specific pieces. They have set up their own label and perpetrate a Friday night radio show of looped soundscapes on Resonance FM called Bad Punk and possess an alter ego that goes by the name of Scrap and Salvage Movement.  These days the junk shop instruments of old are long gone, and guitars, sixties organ and visuals very much to the fore. But the band continues to write about the same outsider concerns with the same measure of spirit and care, and man, they still put on a show. THE CATHODE RAY The Cathode Ray are an Edinburgh based alternative rock band who released their second album entitled ‘Infinite Variety’ on Stereogram Recordings in April 2015. Accompanied by the singles ‘Resist’, ‘Buck The Trend’ and ‘This Force Of Nature’, it has garlanded ecstatic praise from all corners of the music press. Originally based on a loose concept of forging late seventies New York, with late seventies Manchester, The Cathode Ray started life in 2006. Adding 60’s garage, soundtracks, glam rock, northern soul, disco and psyche to the palette, recording sessions ensued, with the band’s debut double ‘A’ sided single ‘What’s It All About?’/’Mind’ hailed as Single of the Year by Radio Clyde DJ and Sunday Mail columnist Billy Sloan in his round up of 2006. A second single, ‘Slipping Away’ was released in April 2009 and proclaimed Single of the Year (so far) by the esteemed journalist Paul Lester in an enthusiastic piece in The Guardian. The band’s eponymous debut album came out in April 2012 through Stereogram Recordings and featured high in the end-of-year roundups on the Manic Pop Thrills, Pennyblackmusic, The Sound Project and Jock’n’Roll websites. The single ‘Dispersal’ was Track of the Month in April 2012 on the influential Janice Forsyth Show on BBC Radio Scotland. ROY MOLLER Roy Moller was born in Edinburgh, grew up in Leith and now lives in Dunbar. While at Strathclyde University he was joint winner of the Keith Wright Poetry Competition. After graduating, Roy concentrated his creative endeavours on music, playing guitar in Peel favourites Meth O.D. and instrumental outfit The Wow Kafe, on whose debut single ‘Who Will Apologise To The Empero'r he featured on lead guitar. The NME gave the record a rave review, calling it “utterly ace” Roy released his first solo single, 'Maximum Smile' in 2003 on Hamburg label Felicite Singles Club. Further singles and the albums 'Speak When I’m Spoken To' and 'Playing Songs No One’s Listening To' garnered enthusiastic reviews as Roy’s reputation gradually grew. “A week ago I’d never heard of him, now I’m his biggest fan,” enthused BBC 6Music’s Marc Riley as he gave Roy’s Byres Road Saturday one of several spins on his show.. Of Moller’s 2012 album, ‘The Singing’s Getting Better’, the Daily Record said, “This is a beautiful, well crafted album that soars ever higher with joy at every play.” Receiving airplay from Riley and Gideon Coe, the album enhanced Moller’s reputation as, in the words of Pennyblackmusic, “one of Scotland’s most original contemporary songwriters”. Roy’s fourth solo album, ‘One Domino,’ was released by Edinburgh-based Stereogram in May, 2014. Garnering the best reviews of his career so far, the album featured prominently in several end-of-year best-of lists. Involvement with the Edinburgh-based poetry/music/animation fusion Neu! Reekie! has encouraged Moller back to poetry and following on from the publication of his work in literary journals and a growing reputation as a spoken word performer, Roy’s first volume of poetry, 'Imports', was published in December 2014 by Appletree Writers. Roy’s musical, 'My Week Beats Your Year', based on his experiences as growing up under the influence of Lou Reed was performed as part of Appletree’s residence at that year’s Edinburgh Fringe, its soundtrack album, released by Stereogram, getting a 10/10 review from Louder Than War In March 2015, Roy was asked to write and perform a poem for 'A Celebration of Nina Simone' at the Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow. Pennyblackmusic Live at The Sebright Arms, 31-35 Coate Street (off Hackney Road), London, E2 9AG Friday 15th April 2016 Doors 8 p.m. Tickets £8 in advance from wegottickets.com £10 on door