Tag: Chris Connelly

The Joy Thieves ” Apocalypse Pending”

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Chicago Industrial Supergroup The Joy Thieves on Armalyte Industries in 2018 has a brand-new album just in time for the steady decay of the post Capitalist society. Drum Daddy Dan Milligan started this project in 2018 blending a love of live punk rock power, and industrial electronic expertise. A chance meeting through his wife with Chicago Industrial Supergroup legend Martin Atkins (Pigface) led to Milligan compiling a talent packed armada to rival any group in the genre that includes current, former, and touring members of bands such as Ministry, Stabbing Westward, Rollins Band, Killing Joke, Pigface, RevCo, PIG, David Bowie, Blue October, Machines of Loving Grace, Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails, KMFDM, Naked Raygun, Foetus, My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult, Pegboy, Nitzer Ebb, and more. I’m proud to say the “more” even includes me.

The Joy Thieves – Apocalypse Pending – Lyrics by Chris Connelly (Yes that Chris Connelly)

Additional production by:

Derek Christopher –Penfield Studios
Mark Pistel -Room 5 Studios

Jeff Harris -JH Studios

Steven Archer -House of Wolves

Dee J Nelson -DJN Music Studio

Jane Jensen -Autozen Music

DJ Darryl Hell -HellLab Studios




Mastered by James Scott at Populist Recording + Mastering
Art direction by Destiny Justic Scott

Original artwork by Charlie Athanas for Burning City

2022 Sounds and Shadows Interview with The Joy Thieves

The world has steadily progressed into a pea green soup skied nightmare of political confrontation, media overload, and wealth disparity which has us all terrified for the future. Enter the sonic baseball bat with nails driven through it to fight back against the dumpster fire that is “Apocalypse Pending“. From the funky bashing buildup of 52 second title track intro (Milligan/DJ Darryl Hell) into the first single “No Anchor” (Connelly/Milligan) we are thrust into a desperate crumbling world which the Thieves immediately start beating the piss out of until it releases the sweet juice of hope.

“Why am I desperate to have no anchor? To prowl just like a panther? I can’t remain for anyone Why is it frostbite in July? So strange the time flies I can’t remain for anyone I will not stay, I’m not wanted I’m neither living, nor haunted Beauty has no anchor, don’t forget you’re here “

Things that really stand out above the pack in 2026. 1) The drums here (As expected by Drum Daddy Dan Milligan) are absolutely electric. Every track to tight, clean, but always feels like it is rattling off the tracks. It never does but the sense of anxiety created by controlled chaos releases your adrenaline. 2) This is peak Chris Connelly, not that he ever goes wrong but I think Dan and company are huge fans that really understand the pocket to create for one of the best ever to do Industrial vocals to let him shine. He snarls, croons, spits, and breathes with perfect intuitive timing. 3) The lyrics are the self-aware directed anger that this era is screaming for given voice. I just don’t spend enough time reading along with the lyrics sheet while listening to music these days, but that’s exactly what this record had me doing. 4) The guitar tones here a DIALED in, they are crunching and cooking just beating you over the head while you stomp.

Favorite Tracks: Honestly all of them. This is a hit play and let them cook album. That is a cop out answer though so here we go.

“The Wrong End Of Your Rifle” – What a flow this track has. It is so real with 90s Industrial homage and Public Enemy political intelligence.

“Not one to clash with my investors
More like cardiac arresters
Menace, ignorance
And heavily armed court jesters

Blamin’ it all
Menace becomes investor
Pay to win
Corporate branding on your sin of sins
You came to blame
And nothing will keep you stifled
Menacing
At the wrong end of your rifle”

“Knife Fight Nihilism” – Jensen and Connelly do a beautiful vocal volley in a slam poetry full of razor wit and funky beats. I love the old school record scratching effect and slippery phrasing.

I’m kind of warming up to you
And your consistent fight
To make it true
A knife fight in a garden
Close to paradise
A royal pardon
Look what’s branding us with heavy shields!
And mortal stuff we can’t reveal
You spilled your guts out
And the dogs prepared to feast
A knife fight honors every carnivore and every beast
Unlikely bloodstains make a pattern
Like a jigsaw on the lam
Unlikely jetties rid the sea of bodies
Dead serious, or just another dead man?

This album is a must have and an early contender for my album of the year.

November Sounds And Shadows Darkscene Singles Chart

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Nearing the end of the year and just in time for Bandcamp Friday we have the latest addition of the S & S chart. November was an amazing month for new music. I found a ton at the Detroit Skull Fest which I will be putting an article out about soon. In the meantime, I encourage all of you to support our scene by listening to these singles chosen by our group of Artists, Djs, Promotors, Reviewers, and Super Fans. Each song here is a single released in Nov 2022 and voted on by our group. If you have a single release in December, or know someone who does, post it in the December poll.

  1. Matt Hart – Terraform
  2. Derision Cult (Feat: Chris Connelly and Gabriel Reeves) – Deaf Blood
  3. ST///LL – Darkened Eyes
  4. Minuit Machine – Follower
  5. Anti-Social Club – Empty
  6. SINE – Je Suis
  7. STAER – Manifold
  8. Mari Kattman – Fever Shakes
  9. Null Device – For You
  10. Mechanical Vein X Moris Blak – Cemetary Wind

MATT HART – Great to see UK artist Matt Hart get the number 1 spot. This single is a banging narrative short film in sonic form. Dystopian sci fi full of underground machinery, perseverance and rebirth. I love the sharp edges and skull smashing mid-tempo beats.

TERRAFORM – SINGLE | MATT HART (bandcamp.com)

Derision Cult – Deaf Blood – West Chicago Industrial band with an all star contributor list of Chris Connelly and Reeves Gabrels. Slamming drum progression and wicked guitar solo with the iconic Connelly vocals, what is not to love?

Mercenary Notes Pt 1 | Derision Cult (bandcamp.com)

st///ll – Darkened Eyes – UK band I wasn’t aware of before they popped onto the chart. Really cool slushy Chameleons meets The Dammed post punk vibes. The basslines here in particular are really infectious. You have my attention.

Darkened Eyes | st///ll (bandcamp.com)

Minuit Machine – Follower – French based ultra-cold wave with the always amazing  Hélène de Thoury of Hante with vocals from Amandine Stioui. An icy gust of winding motion and shimmer. This album is so effortlessly cool. I feel like the slickest version of myself when I am listening to it.

24 | Minuit Machine (bandcamp.com)

Anti-Social Club – Empty – Really cool project from two group members Pete and Greg. Sweet throwback synthgoth anthem, I love the vocals here, big Peter Murphy energy with harmonies from Rachael Fuhs. This track is the perfect blend of fresh and familiar. That chorus drops like an A bomb.

Last Train to Oblivion | Anti-Social Club (bandcamp.com)

SINE – I recently got to discuss this single with Rona in an upcoming interview we will be releasing. Slow steps over smoking volcanic earth with whispered vocals that declare I am. I love how this powerful and sensual confidence oozes in waves while making a sound impossible to place in a box.

Mantis Complete | SINE (bandcamp.com)

ST∆ER – Manifold – I was so excited to see electronic texture artist Ian R. Staer crack the singles charts. This isn’t a “typical” single bopper. It is emotional landscape painting in sonic form. Stretching and breathing with a story created in the listeners mind. I really love that our listeners are picking songs this cerebral.

Written, performed, and recorded by Ian R. Staer.

Mixed by Chris Vrenna at Bluebird Studio, Huntsville AL.

Mastered by Eric Oehler at Submersible, Madison WI

Equilibrium | ST∆ER (bandcamp.com)

Mari Kattman – Fever Shakes – One of my favorite humans in the scene, the amazing burning energy of Mari releases this stomping shadowpop single full of bopping beats and furious delivery. A picture Mari in silver robot armor with a blue electric broadsword carving a swath through her enemies.

Fever Shakes | Mari Kattman (bandcamp.com)

Null Device – For You – The mostly Wisconsin based electronic band with this gorgeous old school synth single that puts me in mind of Depeche Mode “Construction Time Again” blended with powerful Annie Lenox style vocals from Sheridan. Powerful and emotive this whole EP is a must have. Which is why I have it

Eric Oehler – Vocals, Synths, Violin, Guitars
Jill Sheridan – Vocals, Lyrics, Synths
Eric Goedken – Lyrics, Additional Production
Kendra Kreutz – Cello

The Emerald Age | Null Device (bandcamp.com)

Mechanical Vein x MORIS BLAK – Powerhouse team up from England and Boston for this stabbing cadence with some electro Nu Metal energy. This is a positive banger. Glitchy, bass pounding goodness to set your dancefloor ablaze.

Cemetery Wind | Mechanical Vein x MORIS BLAK | Mechanical Vein (bandcamp.com)

Draven’s Mixtape​:​1994 Revisited

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Fans of the movie (and comic book), The Crow, will appreciate this homage to the original soundtrack, courtesy of Distortion Productions. I’m sure for many of us, as well as many of the featured artists, this film was our first taste of some great and seminal music in our formative years. The songs are treated with reverence, but a definite youthful enthusiasm makes them seem fresh again; namely, Enchepalon’s take on the Joy Division staple, Dead Souls. Cocksure kicks the listener in the teeth with their rendition of The Cure’s Burn. I was amazed at how a band like Caustic could draw such a radical departure from Suicide’s (via Rollins Band) Ghost Rider. This is a fun ride that doesn’t sound like a rehash of 1990s alternative music. It easily stands on its own as well as being an excellent companion piece to the original soundtrack.

https://distortionprod.bandcamp.com/album/dravens-mixtape-1994-revisited

There are certain movies that change you, that leave an impression. This was The Crow for me in high school. To take the aesthetic and darkness of living outside the culture around me, and make that cool. If only for a moment. Add to that the setting of Detroit where I fled the suburbs on weekends to act out my misspent youth. Although Brandon Lee and his tragic story was an antihero I was drawn to. The real star character of this film was the soundtrack. A tape that lived in my cars tape deck playing over and over driving down Woodward Ave, seeing the passing street lamps, the mystery moisture rising from sewer caps. This soundtrack was an essential building block of who I was. Here Jim has brought together another team of amazing modern artists to fuse new life in the nostalgic images that still hold strong today. I will discuss a few of the 14 wonderful tracks each bringing their own take on a movie that revitalized a subculture.

Cocksure – Chicago Industrial legends Chris Connelly and Jason Novak take on The Cure “Burn“. A song so powerful and image-stirring that Robert Smith can’t remember writing it. Which I think says more about how many great songs The Cure have. Recently I saw Stabbing Westward play a cover of burn at Cold Waves. This version took a much different direction of electronic explosion. Connelly has a range to rival Smith’s and gives a cracking emotional delivery. A powerful beginning to the narrative.

https://cocksure.bandcamp.com/

Go Fight – Another Chicago industrial pioneer Jim Marcus takes on the slippery opium fueled slither of Stone Temple Pilots “Big Empty” . Marcus cuts through the haze of the original to season with sharper edges and gritty streets. I loved the clarity he brought with his voice and forceful drum strikes of this bright and cutting interpretation.

https://gofight.bandcamp.com/

Null Device – Madison WI EDM artists Null Device did one of my underrated sneaky favorite tracks on this all star soundtrack “Color Me Once” by Violent Femmes. This ended up being my favorite cover of the many strong offerings. A bold shift from the original haunted folk alternative twang. Shattering strong drum beats and sweeping dynamic changes. Eric’s voice drips with anger and honey, contrasted by the harmonies of Jill Sheridan. I love that he keeps Gordo’s cadence while giving rich and beautiful tone. Sky splitting guitar solo to bring the action to a head. This one hit me hard in all the feels.

https://nulldevice.bandcamp.com/album/line-of-sight

Panic Lift – Next up a New Jersey band I owe an apology to. I have criminally under covered them in spite of every time they cross my radar saying this is absolutely astounding I should listen to this all the time. James Frances and company had the unenviable task of taking on Helmet‘s “Milktoast“. Page Hamilton has a special place for me in being an artist who got placed between punk and grunge yet was one of the more complex progressive musicians of his time. So it was going to take a lot to impress me. I was duly impressed. Helmet has such an organic sound and the buzzing rippling electronic energy captured that constantly shifting time and chanting rhythm. I love the spinning siren effect. Softening the edges without decreasing the danger.

https://paniclift.bandcamp.com/

Leaether Strip Red Lokust and Tragic Impulse – Jim Semonik (Distortion Records) who made this compilation possible teamed up with Claus Larson (Leatherstrip) and Pittsburgh’s Tragic Impulse to sonically assault the My Life With the Thrill Kill Cult song “After the Flesh“. So much happening in this rapid fire stinging whip lash electronic sensory explosion. Wonderful use of electronic drum sounds to create a small club punk rock tone. FIRE IT UP! FIRE IT UP!

https://tragicimpulse.bandcamp.com/

https://redlokust.bandcamp.com/

https://leaetherstrip.bandcamp.com/album/ppreciation-v

ego likeness – Our dear friends Donna and Steven from Baltimore’s Ego Likeness added a dreamy mist sway version of Medicine‘s “Time Baby II“. Donna’s voice is warm and wispy cutting to the front more than the original and adding a nice resonance. The music holds that same bouncing tone from the bottom of a K hole. I expected nothing less, it’s Donna and Steven.

https://egolikeness.bandcamp.com/

Jim does it again, fusing that place between my youth and the bands I love today. Just like the original soundtrack, this album is a great way to touch base with some of the hottest acts in the modern scene while playing your favorite scenes from the past.

SINE’s : Desire, Denial and Paramania paints with all the colors

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Earnest without pretension, and somehow both distinct and familiar, SINE’s : Desire, Denial and Paramania is a warm hug from a spiky leather jacket.

https://sineofficial.bandcamp.com/album/desire-denial-and-paramania

SINE, an Austin based electro-industrial bona-fide rock band, has Control, which happens to be the name of the first and my favorite track of the album, “Desire, Denial and Paramnia”. The music crunches and creaks while lead singer and founder, Rona Rougeheart, shifts and mixes vocal styles, presenting the dichotomy and conflict of her lyrics without over-characterizing or identity segmentation.

And yet, the versatility and range continues throughout the album, not only vocally, but in production, structure, tone color, and cadence. The production is impeccable and Rogueheart wears her influences openly, yet doesn’t fall prey to mimicry or pantomime. Her artistic vision and sensibility remain clear while showcasing a thorough gradient of electro-industial-goth-rock. SINE’s latest foray almost feels like a greatest hits album, yet is showhow a cohesive and fully listenable experience from start to finish.

Ken is back on his bullshit. Apparently My Bullshit is Industrial

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It is 10:30pm on a Saturday and I am 3am drunk. Let us stumble through bandcamp and seek out what is sparking joy on this fine October night.

COMPACTOR – Tension Crucible – Brand new album from New York City artist. They have a unique creativity to both his music and the formats he releases it in. I am always astounded by his out of the box thinking for the delivery system of his tracks. People use the term Industrial music, but I feel like Compactor really embraces the blue collar concept of found machinery recorded, converted, and repurposed into true Electronic music meant to infuse with the human body. There are no words. This is not poetry. This is working music. Rhythmic, grinding, sparks flying from sheet metal destroyed with power tools. This is grease and grime with clean streaks of sweat. It’s music of inspiration to drive yourself until you can’t do more. To complete the task. Seldom do I review an album with such a clear purpose.

https://compactor.bandcamp.com/album/tension-crucible

Favorite Track: War of 1312 – I’m not sure what the reference is to. The marching beat, the syncopation, the metal on metal tension building in aggression and machine precision is unnerving as it is powerful. A perfect summary of the tightening of the muscles this album creates. (I learned later this was a reference to the Code 1=A 3 = C 1 = A 2 = B in regards to the street clashes between BLM protesters and police) Added a whole new layer.

unitcode:machine – Themes for a Collapsing Empire – Dallas TX Industrial artist has been on my radar for a while. This new album hits a whole new gear. I remember being at Cold Waves this year and hearing person after person in the know say “Holy shit have you heard this album”. This is a masterclass in marble statue precision craftsmanship in electronic music. The vocals are melodic and driven in a way that haunts your head. I love how clearly the poetry of the lyrics rings out beyond music that fills every wall of a dance club. It follows the template of classical industrial while finding a tone distinctly it’s own. People need to know about this, it needs to be appreciated.

https://unitcode.bandcamp.com/album/themes-for-a-collapsing-empire

Favorite Track: Falling Down/Drift Away – It’s so hard to choose, because while Falling down is the zenith of everything i just described that makes me love this album. So Eric. Drift away brings in Emileigh Rohn of CHIASM with her fusion reactor bright burn voice over a slower deeper musical concept to break up the runaway freight train of the other tracks.

Slighter – Void – LA electronic songsmith producer with another powerful release. Colin Cameron is an absolute maestro of riding the razors edge between drifting spaceship on the edge of the known galaxy and that hook that gets stuck in your mind for days. The true modern day composer commanding a symphony of expression at the tips of his keyboard. The aptly named Void is a lost soundtrack of space horror like Event Horizon. Cameron has a sexy whisper voice that leads you like a siren into the unexplored darkness. Brilliant use of guest talent like Vocals on “Spill Blood” by R.A. Desilets. Proving again to be at the top of the game while drawing far outside the lines.

https://confusioninc.bandcamp.com/album/v-o-i-d

Tigersquawk vs. COP International – I love Compilations, I love Tigersquawk, I love COP International. One low price for 36 badass tracks to put you in the know of some of the best EDM Industrial in the world. This is wide in it’s scope. It is mixed and mastered by Slam, with wicked art by Greg Rolfes. So much value in one place where I guarantee you will find 7+ bands that you will immediately follow. The level of quality and diversity here is staggering.

Favorite Track: Ok normally this would be near impossible because there is so much good here. The Batavia is a undisputable jam. In fact everything i hear from them is pure gold. However one track did absolutely destroy me. Gasoline Invertebrate feat: Chris Connelly remixed by Ivardensphere “Scarlet Slip” was a dream team too powerful to overcome. It had Brian’s leg day industrial with Connelly spitting highspeed pew pew poetry and buzzing bass beats. It’s absolutely captivating. One of those tracks you didn’t know you needed until you couldn’t live without it.

https://tigersquawkrecords.bandcamp.com/album/tigersquawk-vs-cop-international

Industrial music wasn’t a thing that happened in the 90’s. There is still so much ground to break. Still so much to be excited about.