{"title":"Band Of Holy Joy","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBand Of Holy Joy emerged from the remnants of a '77 punk band called Speed. Initially experimenting with industrial bricolage and occasional bursts of madness, they later embraced humanist tendencies in their music. With founder Johny Brown's sharp sensibilities, the band signed with Rough Trade and released classics like Rosemary Smith and Mad Dot. Despite setbacks, a new Band Of Holy Joy has blossomed as an art collective, incorporating visual artist Inga Tillere's influence. Their 2017 release FUNAMBULIST WE LOVE YOU examines contemporary malaise.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe Band Of Holy Joy 2019 model is a sleek beat outfit that blends indie music with Brechtian connotations. They forge forward without dwelling on lineage or being dragged back by history. Quietly growing and gestating for years, they have now emerged fully reborn with renewed purpose of sound and vision.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSimilar Artists: Brix Smith, Sarabeth Tucek, Arborist, The Blue Aeroplanes, Angelica Rockne, The Bluebells, The Natural Lines, Dexys, HOUSE Of ALL, Cian Nugent,\nRiders Of The Canyon,\nDavid Brewis,\nHollow Hand,\nSimon Rowe,\nThe Wedding Present,\nLichen Slow,\nThose Pretty Wrongs,\nJames Howard,\nJames \u0026amp; The Giants,\nRobert Forster\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"funambulist-we-love-you","title":"Funambulist We Love You","description":"\u003cp\u003eFormed from the ashes of an unrecorded ’77 punk band, Speed, Band Of Holy Joy’s initial musical forays were largely in the domain of industrial bricolage and occasional bursts of madness. By the time they began releasing records under their own name in the 1980s, the band’s humanist tendencies came to the fore, with astounding portraits of people on the periphery, resulting in such classics as \u003ci\u003eRosemary Smith, Mad Dot\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eDon’t Stick Knives In Babbies Heads\u003c\/i\u003e. The sharp sensibilities of founder and leader Johnny Brown eventually led to a star-making deal with Rough Trade, a few near hits and career momentum shattered when the label collapsed mere days after what might have been the band’s breakthrough album. Slowly, a new Band Of Holy Joy has blossomed. Despite all the expected rock ’n roll trappings - Great shows! Killer tunes! Special guests! - the band operate, well, differently. In some aspects, they’re an art collective. Inspired by the possibilities which burst forth after punk, the band’s expression takes many forms. Visual artist Inga Tillere plays a large role in shaping the band’s aesthetic and live events, and in musical foil James Stephen Finn, Johnny’s poetic vision transcends expectations without resorting to desperate reaches into esoterica. \u003ci\u003eFunambulist We Love You\u003c\/i\u003e may be the first true literary examination of the malaise set forth by Brexit, Trump, the rise of the far-right and a general disenfranchisement from most post-war liberal values. It rarely names any names, and it’s far from strident, but it’s undeniably a record forged by 2017. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLP - With Lyric Insert and Download.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCD - With Booklet.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Tiny Global Productions","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":50449675092299,"sku":"1018560","price":19.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/084ff99e-bf30-4ccb-8373-4174f52f303c_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727105717"},{"product_id":"dream-of-me","title":"Dream Of Me","description":"\u003cp\u003ePerfect yet deliberately off, dreamy indie pop with Julia Olanders voice at the centre.  2018 debut album \u003ci\u003eI Think I Need The Light \u003c\/i\u003eand follow-up EP \u003ci\u003eIt Will All End In Tears\u003c\/i\u003e were acclaimed both internationally by prominent media, such as Gold Flake Paint, Gorilla Vs Bear and Line of Best Fit.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOn the band's second studio album \u003ci\u003eDream Of Me\u003c\/i\u003e, out via Lazy Octopus, the building blocks remain: crisp reverb-drenched guitars, dreamy choruses and a very analogue feel. It also showcases a new side of the band that is more withdrawn, dressed in sparse soundscapes, with a lot of focus on lyrics, a song for anyone who wears their heart on the outside. It also showcases a new side of the band that is more withdrawn, dressed in sparse soundscapes, with a lot of focus on lyrics, a song for anyone who wears their heart on the outside.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Lazy Octopus","offers":[{"title":"Black LP","offer_id":50481655939403,"sku":"1168113","price":27.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/ab97f9f1-3311-42f6-b67d-e10357c08a82_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727542827"},{"product_id":"neon-primitives","title":"Neon Primitives","description":"\u003cp\u003eBand Of Holy Joy have gone through many incarnations of musical imagination, inspiration and output, without straying from their roots in poetic expressions of social observation and critique - and good tunes! As are their diverse spiritual brethren - The Mekons, Nightingales, The Pop Group - Johny Brown and compatriots are best in periods of social upheaval and rule by opportunistic, insipid demagogues, which is why Band Of Holy Joy, like the aforementioned bands, are in the midst of a powerful renaissance. Rarely had an album title inadvertently captured the zeitgeist in as perfectly absurd a manner as the last full length, \u003ci\u003eFunambulist We Love You\u003c\/i\u003e, and its ‘hit’ (if you will) was the metaphorical \u003ci\u003eTo Leave Or Remain\u003c\/i\u003e, which caught the shock of the Brexit vote results at a moment so hazy with confusion that the issuecould still be read as a metaphor for confusion in a personal relationship. But that ship’s sailed. What only two years ago was vaguely plaintive consideration in the face of a coming storm has now cemented into rage. In real terms, \u003ci\u003eNeon Primitives’\u003c\/i\u003e stand-out track,\u003ci\u003e The Devil Has A Hold On The Land\u003c\/i\u003e, names the very forces of evil which have led to the ills of 2019. It’s unlikely any other song released this year will call to mind the insanity of the current crises when we dare to look back, some years from now. Not to diminish the powerof the album as a whole . . . \u003ci\u003eLost In The Night’s\u003c\/i\u003e palate-cleansing exorcism leads the way to \u003ci\u003eThe Devil Had A Hold On The Land\u003c\/i\u003e. A surprise cover of Vincent Gallo’s \u003ci\u003eSo Sad\u003c\/i\u003e is the drowsy Sunday morning hangover to \u003ci\u003eEcstasy Snowbirds’\u003c\/i\u003e woke realisation of a failed relationship. \u003ci\u003eTake Head Calumniators\u003c\/i\u003e is a call to arms against deceivers, breaking the introspection of the two previous songs. The second side features four songs of loose optimism performed in a mixture of styles. \u003ci\u003eSome People Have Winged Fortune\u003c\/i\u003e fractures aversion of the melody from Orange Juice’s \u003ci\u003eUpwards And Onwards\u003c\/i\u003e to a message of hope. \u003ci\u003eUrban Pilgrims\u003c\/i\u003e, lyrically reminiscent of Band Of Holy Joy’s early song craft, is a half-told tale of spiritual renewal in a landscape which would seem antipathetic to any form of rebirth. \u003ci\u003eElectric Pilgrims\u003c\/i\u003e links the process of aging to the nearness of satori. The epic closer \u003ci\u003eWe Are Sailing To The Island Of Light\u003c\/i\u003e is a dark sea shanty championing the shambolic assortment of people who offer hope in dark times; a riposte to those forces of evil called out in \u003ci\u003eThe Devil Has A Hold On The Land\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Tiny Global Productions","offers":[{"title":"Black | LP","offer_id":50498209972555,"sku":"1064908","price":17.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/35b09af9-f588-45b6-9953-0ed0f1d373b5_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727741537"},{"product_id":"everyone-is-searching-for-beautiful-things","title":"Everyone Is Searching For Beautiful Things","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe reimagined and reworked version of Band Of Holy Joy's \u003ci\u003eDreams Take Flight\u003c\/i\u003e album, plus a full concert recording from the band's 2021 UK tour on 2xCDs. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBand Of Holy Joy have mutated endlessly since their origin as a kind of trashbin industrial folk collective, through early experiments in an intensely poetic form of ambient postpunk which produced cult faves like \"Rosemary Smith\", to near chart-contenders on a then-failing Rough Trade with songs as beautiful as anything by The Pogues, free of bitterness but with greater heart . . . and more recently onward to a series of albums of gently anthemic social culture and political critique.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA new album in the making will add another dimension to the work of Johny Brown and his ever-evolving band, but until those sessions see the light of day, the band have created two albums from recent work, a compelling audio verité remix of the last full length, Neon Primitives, and a fine live show from their last tour dates. Both sets are available here alone, on a double compact disc with magnificent art from Inga Tillere. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Tiny Global Productions","offers":[{"title":"Black | CD | x2","offer_id":50504309309771,"sku":"1161540","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/eb1214d0-e899-4bf7-9f32-fb8e473b2520_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727803369"},{"product_id":"dreams-take-flight","title":"Dreams Take Flight","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eDreams Take Flight\u003c\/i\u003e transitions from political discourse into a post-virus rebirth of human relationship and the inevitable fumblings of the society's psychological reconstruction over the forthcoming year. Have you ever wondered what purpose your joy or my pain? All those moments shared together to be washed away by the rain . . . Have you ever doubted our super hipster being love-in at all? Just a pair of urbane fools passing through waiting for our call . . . Take a leap into the great unknown. Almost perversely heart-on-sleeve, Johny Brown and compatriots have never fitted well within a particular scene - nor have they ever seem to try.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Tiny Global Productions","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":50504440709451,"sku":"1122460","price":19.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50504441364811,"sku":"1122459","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/ce7311fa-9d9f-410d-82e0-0323f3522328_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727805467"},{"product_id":"fated-beautiful-mistakes","title":"Fated Beautiful Mistakes","description":"\u003cp\u003eEarly Band Of Holy Joy existed somewhere on the cut-up side of proto-industrial music, resting between Marc Stewart \u0026amp; Maffia, Sonic Youth, and Current 93, and proponents of a more romantic musical language - Virginia Astley, Dead Can Dance and Cocteau Twins among them - all artists whose work BPHJ's music sat comfortably alongside across on a stream of lowbudget vinyl and cassette compilations after the start of the eighties. A great leap in polish led to a deal with Rough Trade and several early '90s albums which flirted with the mainstream, with BOHJ almost an odder, less obvious cousin to Dexys Midnight Runners. When these releases failed to take off as hoped, lost years followed on smaller labels and self-released projects, until the renewed urgency of the 2016 Brutalism Begins At Home EP and increasingly majestic albums on which saw leader Johny Brown's lyricism enter a new phase\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Tiny Global Productions","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":50506687676747,"sku":"2022981","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50506687938891,"sku":"2022992","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/Band_Of_Holy_Joy_-_Fated_Beautiful_Mistakes_fdc02a61_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727827528"},{"product_id":"scorched-jerusalem","title":"Scorched Jerusalem","description":"\u003cp\u003eBand Of Holy Joy's newest album is somewhat divorced from the general romanticism of their last four albums. \u003ci\u003eScorched Jerusalem\u003c\/i\u003e confronts the historic-political issues of the last several years head-on, and if you haven’t noticed we're in a mess. The album’s first side is beyond grim, mixing an almost Adrian Sherwood \/ Mark Stewart-style production to some of singer Johny Brown's starkest urgent lyrics in over forty years of recording. Although it feels as if the band has picked startling moments from the last decade-and-a-half or so (one song references Anders Behring Breivik's mass murder outside Oslo in 2011), there are moments - generally found on the second half - where the band's instinctive grace \u0026amp; beauty power past the pain and brutality - French Riots sounds almost joyful, Palace Commune scales the top tier of BOHJ's tower of majestic beauty, while When The Tulips Bloom The War Will End, with the sound of a Weimar-era waltz, as if to remind us of what lies behind us also lies ahead. We can't overstate the importance and brilliance of this album, and especially its relevance to the utter crap the world's going through at the moment. Johny and the band offer no solutions beyond \"simple faith in people\" (in the closing track), and only a liar would have you believe there's much more to count on than that . . . if we've even got that. We like to think we release a lot of great (if unheralded by the general public) records that mean something, at least to certain people. Scorched Jerusalem is a strange outlier in that it needs to be heard by more people than will likely hear it. It's rather late in their career for Band Of Holy Joy to have come up with something so utterly transformative as this album . . . but here we are\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Tiny Global Productions","offers":[{"title":"Black LP","offer_id":50956346130763,"sku":"2235909","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50956346327371,"sku":"2235912","price":13.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/Band_Of_Holy_Joy_-_Scorched_Jerusalem_3089a37e_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1737091041"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/collections\/test_2cfbef62_thumbnail_4096_1e5ff709-f321-4197-ba3e-d2c1129fecfc.jpg?v=1727105690","url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/fr\/collections\/band-of-holy-joy.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}