As a vanguard to their upcoming album, "Silver Lining of the Mushroom Cloud" (September, 2014), their second EP, "Pain Decay" (July 11, 2014) continues the German-American electro-synth duo's eruption of unique, dark-themed dance music. Like the dichotomy of their name,
HARM JOY's lyrics, beats, and melodies are at once thoughtful, provocative, comforting, and alarming. Ølåf Å. Reimers (originally from Friesland) is the musical force behind the EBM powerhouse TYSKE LUDDER and Dan von Hoyel (based in San Francisco) is the lyrical voice behind the Swedish synthpop artists TITANS. With their 1950s fetish, Cold War flavoured EP "Pain Decay," HARM JOY pushes the best influences of industrial, EBM, and symphonic overtones together--and lets them fight it out
The swedish Death Roll trio JESUS CHRÜSLER SUPERCAR just released their new music video “God Gave Me Nothing”
“God Gave Me Nothing” is a doomy death n roll masterpiece taken from the strictly limited 7inch “Full Blown Hell” which was released a few weeks ago.
“In Control” is the third official release for Holm/Mirland and the first on their own Robotik label.
Following up on their “Europa Machine” release (Audio Visual Algebra, 2013) Holm/Mirland have
been working hard remixing for other bands (Divider, Deathline, Mangust a.o.) while polishing their
live performance. In January 2014 the band started writing the tracks for “In Control” and now five
months later the album is ready.
The new full length album features ten original compositions all written and recorded by Kim Holm
and John R. Mirland.
Mastered by Danish industrial legend Claus Larsen (Leaether Strip, Klutae).
“In Control” features a different sound from “Europa Machine” - featuring vocals and several tracks
with a slower, heavier approach to the otherwise energetic sound Holm/Mirland is known for. “In
Control” is a darker, more moody and mature album dealing with subjects about the workings of
the mind and how it dominates life.
“In Control” is released both digitally through all major distributors and as a Limited Edition cd
available directly through the band’s Bandcamp page holmmirland.bandcamp.com
Additional information
Holm/Mirland is the minimalist/electro/industrial/
(managing director for the Recession Festival, Crackdown) and John R. Mirland (M73, Mechanical Principle).
Holm/Mirland: In Control from John R. Mirland on Vimeo.
Second album from the Canadian electro-industrial trio, initial quantities in 6-panel digifile with booklet and 2CD full of exclusive remixes from 10 different acts. “No Cure...” is 10 relentless anthems for the end of days – as uncompromising and unstoppable as the Armageddon it suggests we all deserve – topped off with a collaboration with long-time champion of NITRO/NOISE Thomas Rainer, and an atmospheric coda.
This limited edition of 300 copies also comes complete with the bonus CD “10 Ways to Doomsday”, containing remixes by exciting newcomers like THE.INVALID, SIRUS and RAVE THE REQVIEM alongside ROTERSAND, GRENDEL, C-LEKKTOR, FGFC820, MODULATE, BLAKOPZ and DIE SEKTOR, creating a song-by-song mirror-image of the original album tracklist, presented in the exact same order.
Arrow Video is delighted to announce a limited theatrical run of the upcoming Blu-ray and DVD release Branded to Kill, one of the undisputed classics of Japanese cinema. The film will open in select cinemas across the UK on 25th July before being released in a new digital transfer on Blu-ray and DVD from 28th July.
“Time and place are nonsense,” Suzuki once famously said of his films, and some have gone as far to describe Branded to Kill as the cinematic equivalent of a 1960s Pop Art collage. The truth is that few outside of a select group of local cinéphiles and critics cared much for Branded to Kill upon its initial release in June 1967, least of all Kyûsaku Hori, the president of the Nikkatsu studio that produced it, who famously fired its director Seijun Suzuki claiming that his films didn’t make sense and didn’t make money.
Branded to Kill presents an extraordinary experience. Opening with the sharp crack of gunfire beneath the Nikkatsu logo before the lilting theme tune kicks in to accompany the credits, from the offset the viewer is immersed in a world that can only be described as pure cinema. Its tale of Jô Shishido’s hitman, Gorô Hanada, and his attempts to rise to top-dog position in the underworld ranking of contract killers is pared down to mythic abstraction.
Branded to Kill is of a style all of its own. It operates simultaneously as a singularly nonconformist yet technically polished mood piece and as a sophisticated cinematic Rorschach that can be savoured again and again, with every further viewing revealing previously unnoticed aspects and individual meanings. Nonsense it may be, but it is intelligent, stylish and deliriously enjoyable nonsense, nonetheless.
Complementing this dual-format Blu-ray and DVD edition are a host of all-new extras, including a newly restored digital transfer and newly translated English subtitles. Alongside this, the disc will feature interviews with both director Seijun Suzuki and star Jo Shishido.
Most excitingly, the disc will include Trapped in Lust [Aiyoku no wana] (1973) – A delirious roman porno re-imagining of Branded to Kill from Atsushi Yamatoya (one of Branded to Kill’s screenwriters and Suzuki’s regular collaborators).
One could fuel an entire retrospective of films whose constellation of shared staff and thematic elements feed backwards or forwards to Suzuki’s iconic yet iconoclastic masterpiece of 1967, with Yamatoya’s input in many of these ironically more a constant than that of the actual Branded to Kill director himself. Trapped in Lust suggests the extent to which Branded to Kill, while perhaps not such a typical work by its director as it is sometimes labelled, represents a ‘Last Supper’ moment, following which Suzuki and his seven Hachirô Guryû disciples (plus the crucial new figure of Genjirô Arata) went their own ways out into the wider world of Japanese cinema to cause havoc and shake it up for good
Jasper Sharp, writer and curator specialising in Japanese cinema
Alongside this, the Blu-ray disc will also feature the original theatrical trailers for Branded to Kill and Trapped in Lust, a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Ian MacEwan and a collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the films by author Jasper Sharp, illustrated with original stills and new artwork by Ian MacEwan.
Synopsis:
Seijun Suzuki’s delirious 1967 hit-man film has drawn comparisons with contemporaries Le Samouraï and Point Blank and influenced directors such as John Woo, Jim Jarmusch and Quentin Tarantino among others.
The story of laconic yakuza Hanada, aka ‘No. 3 Killer’, the third rated hit-man in Japan who takes an impossible job from the mysterious, death obsessed Misako. Hanada bungles the hit and finds himself the target of his employers and a bullet ridden journey leads him to face the No. 1 Killer.
Shot in cool monochrome with beguiling visuals, Branded to Kill is an effortlessly cool crime film with a jazzy score that caused Suzuki to be fired by the studio’s executives but is now rightly recognised as his masterpiece.
SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:
· New High Definition digital transfer
· High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation
· Newly translated English subtitles for both films
· Interview with director Seijun Suzuki
· Interview with star Jo Shishido by critic and author Koshi Ueno
· Trapped in Lust [Aiyoku no wana] (1973) – A delirious roman porno re-imagining of Branded to Kill from Atsushi Yamatoya, one of Branded to Kill’s screenwriters and Suzuki’s regular collaborators
· Original Trailers for Branded to Kill and Trapped in Lust
· Reversible sleeve with original and newly commissioned artwork by Ian MacEwan
· Booklet by Japanese film expert Jasper Sharp, illustrated with original stills and new artwork by Ian MacEwan
