Jesu "Heartache" CD
[Dry Run]
Ahhh, finally... the long awaited debut release from Justin Broadrick's new solo project. This thing is billed as an EP, but I disagree. Sorry, two songs or not, the fucker runs 40 minutes, so that's a full-length in my book! Of course similarities to various period's of the almighty Godflesh's illustrious back catalog exist herein, so much so that I could easily have stomached this being labeled a Godflesh release, but there's definitely a new angle represented here that gives this project its own identity. The title track, "Heartache", opens and builds up slowly with a variety of thick percussive grooves, droning guitar noises, wails of distant feedback, throbbing basslines, and a good blend of crushing chord progressions alongside more subtly melodic textures. No vocals appear until around eight minutes or so into the piece, at which point things get far more consistently structured, repetitive, and melodic... not to mention fucking powerful. The vocals are done in Broadrick's token monotone singing delivery, which works perfectly to create a highly emotional composition with dense layers of instrumentation - including slowly arpeggiated chords, ringing chorused notes in the background, massive walls of distorted chords, and so on. "Ruined" follows with another lengthy instrumental intro, this time with soft piano and clean guitars, a bit darker and certainly sparser. Of course, once the heaviness kicks in at around five minutes it's actually thicker and more aggressive than "Heartache", though the vocals are still fairly restrained - sort of a spoken singing with lots of delay. Though the rhythmic groove drives the song, there are still some melodic layers that seep in and add more detail, with some dirty acoustics and synths returning with piano during one of the later instrumental passages. And the production is excellent, as always. I have no complaints. It's one person and it sounds like a full band. There's a strong mix with a lot of clarity as well as certain textures that possess more ruggedness. The drum tones sounds better than pretty much any drum machine you'll ever hear, the distorted guitars are ultra dense... it really does sound amazing. Broadrick's got enough experience under his belt at this point to where he clearly knows precisely what he's doing. As one would expect the layout keeps things minimal with very little text and bold imagery of various landscapes, corroded textures, etc. Often the colors are quite saturated and vibrant, which looks great, though it's somewhat odd that a few of the images are of a lesser degree quality (soe look a little dirty or pixilated). I certainly wish the lyrics were included, which is something I always felt Godflesh releases were missing as well... it's nice to have things open for interpretation, especially since so many of these passages could be taken in so many different ways, but it's still nice to know what's actually being said. But anyway, get this as soon as possible. I'm not sure of its availability in the US right now, but I assume it will start creeping up soon, so contact the label directly and ask them. Godflesh is one of my all time favorite bands, and this material leads me to believe that Jesu will follow suit. This is absolutely intense and emotional, and I simply can't say enough about how amazing the title track is... fucking awesome. (9/10)
Running time - 39:55, Tracks: 2
[Notable tracks: both are excellent but "Heartache" is just a masterpiece]
Dry Run Recordings - http://www.dryrun.net

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