The Joy Thieves photo by Derick Smith
Chicago-based industrial-rock-punk-experimental supergroup The Joy Thieves presents ‘I’ll Be Your Hammer’ from their full-length album ‘Apocalypse Pending’, released via Armalyte Industries. As with the album’s lead singles ‘No Anchor’ and ‘The Wrong End of Your Rifle’, the accompanying video was created by Lumbra Productions.
A rallying cry to inspire people to stand up to fascism as it quickly spreads around the globe, the song’s title is a direct response to ‘I’ll Be Your Mirror’ by The Velvet Underground, and also alludes to the quote “Art is not a mirror, it’s a hammer” by the trailblazing Scottish documentarian John Grierson.
Many instantly recognize the iconic voice of Chris Connelly (Fini Tribe, Revolting Cocks, Ministry, Pigface), who shares, “While ‘I’ll Be Your Mirror’ by The Velvet Underground is an introspective plea from one lover to another, ‘I’ll Be Your Hammer’ is written from the perspective of an individual standing up to a fascist regime. The more you suppress our rights, the stronger I get”.
Highly influenced by the hip hop music production techniques of the 80’s and early 90’s, ‘Apocalypse Pending’ finds the Joy Thieves Productions team of Dan Milligan and James Scott redefining themselves by utilizing a sample-heavy production to forge elements of industrial, rock, experimental, punk, hip hop, metal, and freeform jazz. But instead of sampling the music of others, they draw inspiration in the talents of the band’s 80+ other members, resulting in an incendiary sound all their own.
While The Joy Thieves combine a wide array of musicians in order to craft their signature sound, ‘Apocalypse Pending’ stretches this concept to its limits, turning their entire song-creation process upside down. Instead of members contributing songs, as before, they meticulously gathered hundreds of unrelated recorded musical fragments from their fellow Joy Thieves, then painstakingly reconstructed brand new pieces of music from these fragments, ultimately creating a fresh and innovative sound.
‘Apocalypse Pending’ captures the zeitgeist with such precision while touching on the decay of the individual and exploring the isolation of our modern world. Seething with frustration and rage at one moment, and coolly delivering beat poetry the next, this album uses a densely layered, sonic collage as the perfect vehicle to deliver the band’s violently anti-fascist sentiments.??
“’I’ll Be Your Hammer’ takes root in the soil laid down by our punk and industrial ancestors. More than any other song on the record, it deviates from the break beat inspired backbone and into somewhat more accessible, albeit aggressive and discordant territory. We crafted this song to relentlessly hit the listener in the face with punk rock attitude and providing a recklessly speeding vehicle for Chris Connelly’s brilliant, seething lyrics,” says James Scott.
Dan Milligan adds, “I think ‘I’ll Be Your Hammer’ probably sounds more like our past releases than any other song on the album. For those Joy Thieves fans who have been with us from the very beginning, I’m guessing this might be a favorite!”
Since signing with London alternative-industrial label Armalyte Industries in 2018, The Joy Thieves have delivered 11 critically-acclaimed releases. ‘Apocalypse Pending’ is the latest — produced, engineered and mixed by Joy Thieves Productions at Populist Recording + Mastering.
The Joy Thieves includes current, former, and touring members of Ministry, Stabbing Westward, The 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, Die Krupps and more.
The band crafts their cohesive signature sound from the contributions of its ever-growing 80+ roster of members, drawn from a diverse range of genres, including industrial, rock, punk, darkwave, hip hop and experimental music. Created by “all of us, and yet, none of us”, this is a sound all their own, their music aggressive, yet precise; confrontational, but refined; and harsh, yet melodic.
‘Apocalypse Pending’ is out now, available on Digipack CD and digitally everywhere, including Spotify, Apple Music and Bandcamp.
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