Justin Broadrick
Godflesh/Jesu
"I'm not interested in making it big, I can't understand that agenda. I'm just interested in brutalising people." So said Justin Broadrick in 1999, ten years after the debut Godflesh album Streetcleaner (Earache) dropped like a thermonuclear device on the heavy music world.
A founding member of Birmingham's pioneering grind act Napalm Death, Broadrick has now been relentlessly pursuing his agenda of brutalisation for over twenty years now. His crusade has seen him release music under many guises -Ice, Final, Techno Animal, The Sidewinder, Godflesh, and now Jesu. It's been a long, difficult road for Broadrick, one of extreme music's true mavericks, and arguably, geniuses. His singular vision has been monumentally influential, though more through subterfuge than any overt manner. There can be no question that his back catalogue charts the history of one of underground music's most focused individuals.
The Godflesh story ended in 2002, when Broadrick suffered a near nervous breakdown with a Stateside tour in support of that year's Hymns (Music For Nations) album looming. After that album, his long time loyal lieutenant, bassist G Christian Green had left the band, unable to contemplate any more touring. It was a sad end for a much loved band, but out of the ashes Broadrick has salvaged his vision, and after a brief hiatus is looking as productive as ever.
Like fellow Napalm Death member Mick Harris, Broadrick left that band as he wanted to pursue an individual musical ideal. While Harris's Scorn delved into dark ambience and dub techniques, Godflesh went in another direction, implementing guitars as the bluntest of instruments. Where his previous band had been about insane speed, Broadrick brought the tempo down, while paradoxically upping the intensity.
Utilising the rigid, militaristic rhythms of drum machines and Green's caustic, pummelling bass as the most solid of foundations, Broadrick's scything, scarifying guitar work was the polar opposite of the prevailing heavy music paradigm of 1989. He eschewed the virtuoso techniques of the day in favour of the simplest, most direct route he could find - two chord riffs, dissonant open chords, screaming harmonics, torturous feedback. Yet it all exhibited consummate good taste, so much so that Broadrick started appearing in technical magazines such as Guitar Player.
"The sound I respect most these days is held by the classic death metal bands," he told that publication in 1992. "I really respect that dense, thick distortion with a fizzy top. I don't hear anything else in any genre of music with that sort of power."
The impact of Streetcleaner - a truly classic album - was so broad that Godflesh were revered in many underground circles that would normally eschew acts with metal genealogy. Due to the uncompromising nature of their sound, and perhaps the use of drum machines, they were bracketed with The Swans, and Steve Albini's Big Black. Perversely, Metallica's guitar maestro Kirk Hammett could also be heard singing Broadrick's praises.
Over the prevailing years, the Godflesh aesthetic remained much the same, though the production improved markedly as the band made the leap from their trusty 8-track tape machine into the digital domain. Later albums such as Songs of Love and Hate or Us and Them delved into drum'n'bass breaks, heavily treated guitars and samples. Not surprisingly, due to Broadrick's other projects, Songs Of Love and Hate was remixed as Love and Hate in Dub. Following this idea, some shows were performed as the Godflesh Sound System, with no live guitars.
These changes reflected Broadrick's outside interests - the nasty hip-hop/breaks of his duo with Kevin Martin, Techno Animal (whose 1991 album Ghosts was a seminal influence on Kid 606), the deadly D'n'B of Tech Level 2 and the 'isolationist' ambience of Final. Of the last project he said, "Multi-tracking improvised pieces is ultra-fascinating because you're creating as you play, as opposed to executing a set of riffs or parts. I'm getting more into making miniature sounds seem really big. It's an interesting area to explore."
Now that he doesn't have the Godflesh albatross around his neck, Broadrick has been able to meld a lot of these ideas together with his new solo guitar orientated project Jesu. The first fruits of this was the Heart Ache EP (Dry Run Records), released a couple of months ago. This behemoth features two twenty minute long tracks -'Heart Ache' and 'Ruined'.
Both of these weave through dizzying levels of mood and intensity, encompassing the trademark distorted guitar work - and some acoustic, Broadrick's contradictory harsh/harmonic vocals, bleak ambience, and many of the unique ideas he has been lauded for previously.
The EP will take some tracking down, but a full-length album on Hydra Head records is due anytime soon. And if the EP is anything to go by, it will be right up there with the best releases from Broadrick's extensive and eclectic library of past classics.
"I'm not interested in making it big, I can't understand that agenda. I'm just interested in brutalising people." So said Justin Broadrick in 1999, ten years after the debut Godflesh album Streetcleaner (Earache) dropped like a thermonuclear device on the heavy music world.
A founding member of Birmingham's pioneering grind act Napalm Death, Broadrick has now been relentlessly pursuing his agenda of brutalisation for over twenty years now. His crusade has seen him release music under many guises -Ice, Final, Techno Animal, The Sidewinder, Godflesh, and now Jesu. It's been a long, difficult road for Broadrick, one of extreme music's true mavericks, and arguably, geniuses. His singular vision has been monumentally influential, though more through subterfuge than any overt manner. There can be no question that his back catalogue charts the history of one of underground music's most focused individuals.
The Godflesh story ended in 2002, when Broadrick suffered a near nervous breakdown with a Stateside tour in support of that year's Hymns (Music For Nations) album looming. After that album, his long time loyal lieutenant, bassist G Christian Green had left the band, unable to contemplate any more touring. It was a sad end for a much loved band, but out of the ashes Broadrick has salvaged his vision, and after a brief hiatus is looking as productive as ever.
Like fellow Napalm Death member Mick Harris, Broadrick left that band as he wanted to pursue an individual musical ideal. While Harris's Scorn delved into dark ambience and dub techniques, Godflesh went in another direction, implementing guitars as the bluntest of instruments. Where his previous band had been about insane speed, Broadrick brought the tempo down, while paradoxically upping the intensity.
Utilising the rigid, militaristic rhythms of drum machines and Green's caustic, pummelling bass as the most solid of foundations, Broadrick's scything, scarifying guitar work was the polar opposite of the prevailing heavy music paradigm of 1989. He eschewed the virtuoso techniques of the day in favour of the simplest, most direct route he could find - two chord riffs, dissonant open chords, screaming harmonics, torturous feedback. Yet it all exhibited consummate good taste, so much so that Broadrick started appearing in technical magazines such as Guitar Player.
"The sound I respect most these days is held by the classic death metal bands," he told that publication in 1992. "I really respect that dense, thick distortion with a fizzy top. I don't hear anything else in any genre of music with that sort of power."
The impact of Streetcleaner - a truly classic album - was so broad that Godflesh were revered in many underground circles that would normally eschew acts with metal genealogy. Due to the uncompromising nature of their sound, and perhaps the use of drum machines, they were bracketed with The Swans, and Steve Albini's Big Black. Perversely, Metallica's guitar maestro Kirk Hammett could also be heard singing Broadrick's praises.
Over the prevailing years, the Godflesh aesthetic remained much the same, though the production improved markedly as the band made the leap from their trusty 8-track tape machine into the digital domain. Later albums such as Songs of Love and Hate or Us and Them delved into drum'n'bass breaks, heavily treated guitars and samples. Not surprisingly, due to Broadrick's other projects, Songs Of Love and Hate was remixed as Love and Hate in Dub. Following this idea, some shows were performed as the Godflesh Sound System, with no live guitars.
These changes reflected Broadrick's outside interests - the nasty hip-hop/breaks of his duo with Kevin Martin, Techno Animal (whose 1991 album Ghosts was a seminal influence on Kid 606), the deadly D'n'B of Tech Level 2 and the 'isolationist' ambience of Final. Of the last project he said, "Multi-tracking improvised pieces is ultra-fascinating because you're creating as you play, as opposed to executing a set of riffs or parts. I'm getting more into making miniature sounds seem really big. It's an interesting area to explore."
Now that he doesn't have the Godflesh albatross around his neck, Broadrick has been able to meld a lot of these ideas together with his new solo guitar orientated project Jesu. The first fruits of this was the Heart Ache EP (Dry Run Records), released a couple of months ago. This behemoth features two twenty minute long tracks -'Heart Ache' and 'Ruined'.
Both of these weave through dizzying levels of mood and intensity, encompassing the trademark distorted guitar work - and some acoustic, Broadrick's contradictory harsh/harmonic vocals, bleak ambience, and many of the unique ideas he has been lauded for previously.
The EP will take some tracking down, but a full-length album on Hydra Head records is due anytime soon. And if the EP is anything to go by, it will be right up there with the best releases from Broadrick's extensive and eclectic library of past classics.
posted by Gavin at 6:48 PM
0 comments
