#jesu band

[schismusic]

Y'all need Jesu

(in which I kick myself in the ass for not listening to Justin Broadrick's other band earlier)

Anyone who's ever read anything that I've ever done on this blog since reactivating would know I am mildly obsessed with Godflesh. So it would only follow rationally that I would enjoy other JKB and GCG projects – which is true, to an extent. For example, I do love Techno Animal/Zonal, for what I've heard, and I am listening to Vitriol's I-VII as writing music as we speak (it's pretty cool!). Surprisingly enough however, I did not go into Jesu – for all intents and purposes, the only project that presented itself as Godflesh's "sequel", so to speak. I guess a lot of this has to do with a vague, but genuine, distaste for post-metal on my part. A friend of mine was very into it back in the day, I tried some due to peer pressure – and also due to the fact that this guy is a very close friend of mine – then promptly opted off, to a point where I haven't even listened to any Isis, either. Until one night a couple of weeks ago I stumble upon Jesu's Bandcamp page, coming across their original self-titled, and I'm like you know what – I need something that's like Godflesh enough, but a bit off-center. So of course I put it on and within like a minute, I knew I had to atone for my sins and write this post.

I think I may have, at one point, heard Tired of Me in the past – wouldn't be able to tell you where, or when – because the vocal melody is familiar enough to me. But I did not remember it hitting this hard. Possibly that has to do with my emotional state at this point in time, or with autumn drawing closer and closer, or potentially both even. Another facet that I think might have helped the record's case right now, more pointedly, is the fact that a lot of this sounds a lot like some of the more pensive moments off of Selfless – the one Godflesh record I've spent the most time with over the years. It's also the first Godflesh record I ever show anyone who's interested in them (and also anyone who's not interested in them, because frankly I love Godflesh more than my social life), it's the one I keep in the car stereo most of the time (the other one on heavy rotation would be the self-titled EP), and it has my favourite lonesome-drive-at-2am tracks ever. JKB's songwriting always does a lot with very little, but the first Jesu record might be the point in his recorded work when it became most evident.

All of these enormous emotions, those very same big emotions I talked about in my first Godflesh post, all show up here, intelligible, tangible, free of all of Godflesh's defensive rage for the first time. Not that they can't get aggressive at times: on Man/Woman, JKB busts out his signature brutal screaming, which – combined with none other than Paul Neville as guest guitarist – harkens back to the thornier, more heartbroken moments in Pure. But the key takeaway from the record is that the heaviness is always accompanied or, maybe even, second to this wistful sense of melody. How else would one explain the use on pitch correction, wherein JKB's few melodic vocal lines over the past remained very naked and fluttery in pitch? Not that I'm complaining here, mind you: if you catch me on a bad day, I'm very likely to say that autotune is the greatest invention in the history of contemporary music alongside the solid-body electric guitar and the kick on the Roland TR-808. JKB's rediscovery of melody, if we want to call it that, makes for some of the most touching moments in his works. And I do mean openly touching, not even necessarily in a cathartic way – again, not too far off from some of the more dilated and forlorn moments in Selfless, which actually includes the last third of Go Spread Your Wings (linked here directly to the relevant timestamp, but you should go listen to the whole thing at some point) or maybe even the Black Boned Angel verses, as well as Mantra and Empyreal. A track like, for instance, Friends Are Evil perfectly encapsulates both souls of the record. While the instrumental starts off foreboding the same unbound aggression as Godflesh, to a point where the intro riff could be mistaken from that of Jesu (the final track off of Hymns), all of a sudden the following section opens up into something that moves out of machine-like territory and lands somewhere very close to, say, a maximalist version of Codeine. As much of a paradox as that may seem.

Sure, in total frankness the second half kinda loses a bit of steam for me personally. The riffs remain very well written and powerful on their own, don't get me wrong; I just sort of think they're stretched for far longer than what goes on in the first half and, plain and simple, they just don't really tickle my fancy. Like I said, a notable exception to this would be the aforementioned, absolutely incredible Man/Woman, and it also has to be noted that these last tracks become more enjoyable over repeated listens, once you start delving into the massive-sounding yet austere arrangements. Guardian Angel, in particular, has a sobering effect coming at the end of this full hour of music: signature Jesu major key jam, incredibly pensive and autumn-like, a tale of people running away from you – and of running away from yourself. A dispossession. It should be noted that this record was apparently made in the wake of Godflesh's impromptu disbandment, and the short lyrical stint – typically JKB-fashioned in its directness and precision and economy of words: in Italian, we'd call his style "icastico" – quickly gives way to a long, resounding coda of delay, feedback, a sense of surprising despair. Not unlike some of the long, CD-exclusive tracks in Godflesh's early discography: your Streetcleaner 2s, your Pure 2s, your Go Spread Your Wingses (sorry for that unreadable mess). And therein lies Godflesh. Open emotion, the horror of emptiness, the sense of profound distance between veryone and everything. It would once again come to wear different, heavier clothes. But those who know where to look will find it everytime and cherish it like it deserves.

P.S.: in re-reading this post I'm just now noticing I made no mention of We All Faulter. Unforgivable: We All Faulter is my absolute highlight from the record. Go listen to it:

[maxxxthewpoet]

Jesus bless us and save us from hell.

[beeloovedd]

Rain mocking his run 😭

[possible-streetwear]

LYDIA LUNCH

[copia]

endless ghifs 6/? ⛧ source — "So if you meet me, have some courtesy; have some sympathy, and some taste!"

[dewsgremlin]

Kevin aka Jesus has a personal problem with Rain.

[sorrowsofsilence]

amen

[thehypnone]

THIS IS HILARIOUS IM FUCKING DEAD

[profanepurity]

This is very stupid, but I needed to get it out of my head. Context: Mammon eats avarice by literally eating people like Jim

[nihildenial]

moments before disaster

[jesus-holding-your-fave]

Today, Jesus is holding:

Copia from Ghost

[niceandcozycave]

You've been Jimotized

[skele-bunny]

"I think of you as a dream," Swiss laying on Aether's chest, feeling up his fur. "You're something warm and inviting. You're something I look forward to, and something I dread to lose."

It's silent for a moment, Aether's thumb rubbing circles in Swiss' shoulder to comfort. "I don't think I'm ready to let my dream die."

All it takes is for Swiss to open his eyes and be in his cold bed, cradling a pillow to his head and body yearning for touch did he realize that his dream has been long gone.

[aghoulettewithnoname]

Father🛐

[possible-streetwear]

LYDIA LUNCH

[tomatette]

The Crow - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Songs combined with the scenes they're from. 'It Can't Rain All The Time' is from the end credits, so I put it in the album cover. "It Can't Rain All the Time" Jane Siberry "Big Empty" Stone Temple Pilots "Slip Slide Melting" For Love Not Lisa "Dead Souls" Nine Inch Nails "Burn" The Cure "Time Baby III" Medicine "Snakedriver" The Jesus and Mary Chain "Color Me Once" Violent Femmes "Ghostrider" Rollins Band "Golgotha Tenement Blues" Machines of Loving Grace "Milktoast" Helmet "The Badge" Pantera "Darkness" Rage Against the Machine "After the Flesh" My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult

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