2.) Ascension - Jesu (Top 20 Albums of 2011)

Ascension

Jesu

Caldoverde Records.

Original SCQ Review.

Hearing Jesu for the first time was revelatory, in large part because I’d never experienced a sound so brash yet seductive. Justin Broadrick’s studio approach to metal was certainly loud but his focus sought expansiveness instead of sheer volume. Giant webs of treated guitar bend around you, enticing any latent nostalgia or frustration bubbling underneath, and revealing emotions you hadn’t paid notice to.

Ascension, the long-awaited full-length follow-up to 2007’s Conqueror, makes its trade by exposing emotion. Every song but the closing title track sports not only a massive armor but the most delicate, melodic underbelly. Detuned acoustics feed drama through the blustery opener ‘Fools’, a yawning ambience offsets the heaviness of ‘Small Wonder’, and a disembodied choral adds to the awe-like intensity of ‘Birth Day’. Even with the inclusion of rocker ‘Sedatives’, Ascension remains super sludgy with long passages dedicated to Broadrick’s patient, earth-shuddering sadness. But like the best Jesu release (in my opinion, that’s Lifeline EP), that sadness comes equipped here with a palpable sense of liberation. Acquiring the taste for Jesu may be an uphill battle, but the rewards within the hour-long Ascension are worth fighting for.

Ascension - Jesu

Ascension

Jesu
Caldo Verde Records.


SCQ Rating: 84%

Taking all of Justin Broadrick’s many musical projects into consideration, there’s little questioning that Jesu has been as much the songwriter’s show-horse and his workhorse. Over the course of fifteen releases – in just another a decade, keep in mind – Broadrick has fine-tuned Jesu into a brand. Sure, it might swerve spontaneously from industrial to electronic to raw metal but its undertow, in sludgy claws that manifest slow-motion beauty out of everyday depression, remains Jesu’s main draw and raison d’être. So it seemed a natural strategy that Jesu’s prolific output would deal mostly in split projects and EPs; formats that limited Jesu’s grandiose habits to digestible tablets that illustrated enormity without exhausting listeners.

Especially after the concise and awe-inspired snapshots Jesu captured in the Silver and Lifeline EPs, the announcement of Ascension as the long-awaited full-length follow-up to 2007’s Conqueror made me question the vitality of this long-standing brand: is Broadrick magnetic enough as a personality or vocalist to carry an hour-long dirge? Can Jesu’s notoriously stagnant repertoire keep listeners’ interested over such a haul? Much like the cover-art of Ascension, these answers fall into substantial grey area; tracks like ‘Fools’ and ‘December’ may take an ungodly amount of time to circle their conservative chords but Broadrick’s atmosphere and disaffected delivery somehow imbue the void with a hypnotic quality worth revisiting. The more familiar one gets, the clearer Jesu’s breathtaking vistas can be felt through the crushing distortion coating ‘Small Wonder’ and ‘Broken Home’. Not every song offers such keen unraveling but that impenetrable wall of sound is also a Jesu trademark that keeps this body of work so intimidating.

In fact, when you look at what makes Ascension unique compared to prior releases, they read more as hindrances than compliments; from the predictably glum mood to Broadrick’s odd desire to marginalize his own voice (which sounds almost swallowed by feedback at all times), it’s no surprise that many critics have shrugged this record off. Its angle might be soft from a music journalist’s perspective but these songs are ironclad, bulked to a heavy encumbrance even when Broadrick sounds more vulnerable than ever. Ascension boasts a lot of hard edges and uncompromising techniques but it makes each reward something greater to savour.

Jesu - Small Wonder by brooklynvegan

Jesu: Pale Sketches Demixed - Pale Sketcher

Jesu: Pale Sketches Demixed

Pale Sketcher
Ghostly International.

SCQ Rating: 79%

Few artists working today have maintained their inherent enigma while being as prolific as Justin K. Broadrick. You’d think the man responsible for Godflesh, Final and Jesu – not to mention significant roles in Napalm Death and a bunch of side-projects – would be easier to decode as he enters the third decade of his recording career, but you’d be wrong. With his last high-profile release, Jesu’s Opiate Sun, it appeared as though Broadrick was abandoning his recent electronic flirtations in favour of old-school sludge-metal. Like so many other left-turns in his career, Broadrick double-backs into digital experimentation again with Pale Sketcher, a guise born to “demix” tracks from his 2007 Jesu release called (wait for it…) Pale Sketches Demixed.

Now for fans of beat-laced Broadrick (think Lifeline EP or Why Are We Not Perfect EP), Jesu: Pale Sketches Demixed warrants immediate welcoming but, make no mistake, these aren’t typical Jesu tunes. ‘Can I Go Now’ may carry the over-arching melody and gauzy synths to deserve inclusion on Why Are We Not Perfect EP, but its execution is far dreamier, its vocals muffled androgynously behind the syrupy keys. As a new chapter to an unpredictable catalog, Pale Sketcher finds Broadrick’s electronic capabilities undergoing an evolution, albeit one viewed in soft focus. How else to describe the plush soundscapes that oscillate the percolating dub of ‘Plans That Fade’, that forebode under chiming piano on ‘Don’t Dream It’? Rough-edged beats help keep these pastoral hymns somewhat gritty; when used delicately, they help pace a peaceful solitude (‘The Playgrounds Are Empty’) but, when amped up, Broadrick’s beats create an aural space you’d prefer not to be alone in (‘Wash It All Away’).

That we hardly notice Broadrick’s absence as a vocalist might be an indicator of one of Jesu: Pale Sketches’ great strengths. These compositions don’t feel lacking or in particular need of a vocal guide. And when he does turn up nearly effects-free on the slightly industrial ‘Supple Hope’, it briefly steals us from Pale Sketcher’s universal, language-free headspace. For a moment, it feels like a Jesu record and, while this collection unifies the work of Jesu and Pale Sketcher (thereby deeming the idea of distinguishing them sorta pointless), the majority of these songs speak out to listeners from a different plane. Broadrick still uses a hammer to drive home a song’s emotional value but, in these electronic surroundings, his impact lends a gentle nudge.

Opiate Sun EP - Jesu (No Ripcord Review)

Opiate Sun EP

Jesu
Caldoverde Records.

No Ripcord Review: 6
SCQ Rating: 60%

Despite his insanely prolific schedule and involvement in no less than five bands (among them the notable Napalm Death and Godflesh), not even Justin Broadrick can escape the inevitable clutches of predictability. By the time his Jesu moniker had turned four years of age, the ex-metalhead had crossed eleven releases off his to-do list… including three in 2008 alone. And with each split release or extended-play unveiled within months of each other, Jesu’s sneak-attacks grew increasingly linear, showcasing a speedy change-of-heart from sludgy post-rock to industrial electronics. One year since his synthetic love climaxed on Why Are We Not Perfect EP, Broadrick breaks the chain with Opiate Sun; a left-turn for home that should reward old fans without completely deafening his newer following.

Announcing his return to hard-rock roots, opening track ‘Losing Streak’ is a well-paced collision of crashing cymbals and guitar distortion that recalls the fist-pumping bravado of Silver. That song’s sanguine vocal hooks are compounded on the following title track, which drives a slower, penetrating groove for Broadrick to imbed with slowburning guitar arpeggios. By the time ‘Deflated’ kicks in with its chugging metal verses, any doubts that Opiate Sun was designed to be Jesu’s return-to-form EP should be sailing out the window. Of course, the “metal” in Jesu remains largely cosmetic, its wall-to-wall guitar blasts, always chest out to confront first-impressions, are merely make-up to disguise Broadrick’s identity as a romantic songwriter. And that’s why I love Jesu; his albums are so boisterous and eardrum-splitting, it’s easy to forget that what Broadrick is really force-feeding us is his own vulnerability. Giving that complex songwriting some subtlety in the form of minor electronics may have upset early followers but it also balanced and progressed his sonic palette. Such studio frills are omitted and ultimately missed on Opiate Sun, replaced with a stubborn volume that negates Jesu’s understated third-dimension. These four songs properly house Broadrick’s comfort zone but, despite his effective songwriting, Opiate Sun feels like a retread of raw, less imaginative years.

Why Are We Not Perfect no doubt had its share of growing pains but its electronic veneer allowed clearer dynamics, better soundscapes and a wider horizon of Jesu possibilities. And although Broadrick’s latest offering manages a break from that trajectory, the most striking sneak-attack is that instead of appearing courtesy of Avalanche Recordings (his own imprint) or regular Broadrick label-of-choice Hydrahead, Opiate Sun arrives in stores thanks to Caldoverde – the home of Sun Kil Moon maestro Mark Kozelek. As random as it initially seems considering the instrumental incongruities dividing folk from hard-rock, these two artists have much in common; both reside within the stretched-out purgatory of slowcore emoting, often muffling their vocals beneath modest compositions. In the end, Broadrick manages to withhold some unpredictability… partly because he rejected his own label in favour of someone else’s but mostly because Opiate Sun is homogenously fighting his greater strengths and, bizarrely enough, those that compliment the Caldoverde roster.

(This review was originally published on No Ripcord...)

Why Are We Not Perfect EP - Jesu

Why Are We Not Perfect EP

Jesu
Hydrahead Records.

SCQ Rating: 74%

If it appears as though SCQ is suddenly Jesu-crazy, it's because Jesu, codename Justin Broadrick, is EP-crazy, following up his five releases in 2007 with another three in 2008. This, his third, finds the material he recorded for a split 7" with Eluvium last year re-issued on compact disc for the first time, supplemented with two alternative versions.

Although his hectic release schedule often sees older collaborations unveiled within weeks of brand new endevours, thereby skewing the Jesu timeline, Why Are We Not Perfect EP is a not-so-unexpected continuation of Broadrick's electronic infatuation, captured expertly in the Lifeline EP. Here, he digs deeper into the details of production, arguably spending more time tweaking knobs than fine-tuning arrangements. Gone are the meaty guitars that permeated 'Lifeline' or thrashed 'End of the Road', replaced instead with looped soundwaves or digitized guitar tones that make up 'Farewell's slowcore haze. That and its title track both feature Broadrick's treated vocals, floating into the ether but as well-suited to the material as ever, the latter song building on patient fuzz-chords before waking into full stretches of distorted guitar. The intended plodding of these tunes is refreshingly divided by 'Blind and Faithless', an instrumental track that picks up the pace and embraces My Bloody Valentine like no previous Jesu outing. Indeed, this EP is the inevitable culmination where Broadrick's muses and flirtations become realized accomplices to the Jesu sound, leaving one to guess whether any room remains for his twenty-plus years' experience in metal.

The two alternative versions (of 'Farewell' and the title track) feel unnecessary, marking merely cosmetic differences from their originals that, if nothing else, add to the feeling that Jesu has always been destined to end up a one-man studio experiment. Further exposing these arrangements as ambient dream-pop, where texture and mood are favoured to structure, the alternates fade out with little heartbeat at all. With the funereal pulse and cool synths to guide your trance-like state, Why Are We Not Perfect is a half-hour of chilly electro-touched rock that prepares us for winter.

Lifeline EP - Jesu

Lifeline EP

Jesu
Hydrahead Records.

SCQ Rating: 82%

Welcome to ‘Drone Doom’ – the apparent result of fusing metal, shoegaze, ambient and electronic elements into one hybrid style. It’s also a ridiculous label, perhaps the most embarrassing since ‘folktronica’, and through use indicative of every lame sentiment ever hurled at critics. Moreover, terms like ‘Drone Doom’ damage the music in question, lending unnecessary baggage to one Justin K. Broadrick, the man behind the Jesu moniker, who is responsible for all instruments and production. Fabricated genres aside, Jesu is the latest in a line of projects that began in 1985 when Broadrick joined Napalm Death as a new guitarist. A year on, he was invited to join Head of David, this time as their drummer. Soon after that gig wrapped up, Broadrick created Godflesh (1988-2002), an industrial-metal group, produced a bunch of records for fellow label-mates (Isis, Pelican), established his own record label (Avalanche Inc.), and gave birth to Jesu; the first project where he is alone at the wheel, able to take any direction he desires.

And steer the vessel he has, from the originating muse of industrial music to My Bloody Valentine-styled shoegaze, and now, with Lifeline EP (his fifth, count’em, release of 2007), a stronger attachment to electronic production techniques. The steady percussion on ‘You Wear Their Masks’ remains human-made, but the distinctions between that and a drum-machine are becoming as blurred as the swells of guitar. More telling than this sound of metal melting into moody textures is the prominence of ambience here; from the onset of the title track, Lifeline EP carries on down the same electronic path as an appendix to the Conqueror full-length. Keyboards provide the melodies here, circling around each other in a frothy glow while the guitars move like shifting plates, slow and grinding. It’s at once downtrodden in its heaviness and uplifting in its sonic beauty.

It’s exciting to watch a band so prolifically intent on sound exploration, where fans can only theorize where they’ll travel next. Despite a remote metal influence, Lifeline EP has inducted Jesu into the shadowed margins of post-rock or alternative rock, a destination this band has been leaning toward for the past few releases. Whether that’s a graduation or demotion is up for debate among purists and indie-fans, but the sound unearthed in Jesu is as heavy and calming as thunder, and worth supporting in every transitional release along the way.