This is a short, limited edition EP that Jesu released towards the arse end of 2012 on some rediculously limited quantity (I can't remember what number it was exactly but it sold out and I missed out on a copy, but to be honest, I probably wasn't paying enough attention and let it slide). It contains an unreleased Jesu track in the form of "Veiled" and a beautiful cover of The Stranglers' "Duchess", redesigned in the usual more-sombre-than-sombre Jesu approach.
I've linked the cover below because it's simply amazing, but the B side is just as good. I believe this came out not so long after the Ascension album, which was a bit of a miss in my opinion, so it was nice to find that Jesu hadn't completely lost it's way (future releases also completely cemented this fact). Doomy, gloomy, and as a YouTube commenter so rightfully pointed out - very Killing Joke-y. Excellent!
There is just something magical about the guitars on this thing, and I've poured my heart out about Jesu synths to you all before....
There’s a lot of Jesu stuff out there now – I think this
project ended up being much more productive than even Justin Broadrick could
have anticipated when he first started lurching out the aching melancholic drones
of Jesu. Silver however, simply has to be some of the best material recorded
under this moniker. It fights for the top spot against Lifeline, which was the
first Jesu release I heard and therefore I have an immense soft spot for. I
think Lifeline is probably more solid overall, but Silver might just take the
crown simply because of the title track alone.
"Star” and “Wolves” are also two fantastic Jesu songs
ranking high up there, but “Silver” itself is something else. It has the
components of any other great Jesu track; the droning, distorted guitars and
bass creating a wall of sound, a basic drumming backbone and a bright, melodic
synth to carry the whole thing. It’s a brilliant song but it’s not until the
middle of the track that all these components come together so beautifully that
it sends shivers up my spine every single time I hear it. The band chug through
their heartbroken metal whilst that synth just fucking soars and unfolds and
goes on and on and on…Then the vocal kicks back in; “Silver’s just another gold…”
repeated over and over and over. I’m not sure of the intended message in this
song but I get feelings of reassurance and comfort, as if it’s saying “things
aren’t the best, but they could be a lot worse. Look on the bright side, pal!”
The only time I’ve ever taken magic mushrooms (well, Dutch
truffles) was the day that Jesu played Roadburn 2012 and the experience, although
mild, peaked during the band’s set. I was able to intricately study the music
and dissect it in my head, really get behind every aspect of it, and hearing “Friends
Are Evil” and “Silver” in that way nearly brought me to tears. It was a powerful
moment I’ll never forget and definitely brought me a lot closer to Jesu’s
music.
If you’re gonna play this video, please play this as loud as
you possibly can.
Fuck! What happened here? Earth are definitely not messing about on their new record - the heaviest thing the band have done in over a decade. I can get behind this! Since their reformation / regrouping, Earth have been all about calm, serene, bright and wavering tones; colossal monuments of clean guitar work and uplifting instrumental soundscapes - almost like the shoegazing equivalent of their early drone days. But this is something else entirely. Someone finally decided to turn Earth's amps up, and I couldn't be happier with that decision.
The Bees Made Honey... is one of my favourite things ever, and I loved the first part of Angels Of Darkness Demons Of Light, with it's dusty, haunting, almost western sound. The second part of that double album was much, much more sparse, and I must admit I lost interest a bit, with Earth's already stripped back sound being reeled in even further (I gotta say though, the bass playing was pretty funky).
I'm not sure if I'm entirely sold on the inclusion of guest vocalists (Rabia Shaheen Qazi and sometimes-QOTSA collaborator Mark Lanegan) but the reappearance of distortion in Earth's work has made a world of difference for me. It's not as if it is overpowering in any way, or like it even detracts from the subtleties going on around the guitar, it's just that everything sounds much more alive and vital - something that can do no harm for a band as far into their career as Earth.
Enter a shimmering, mesmerising desert of sonic absolution.
This is the first time I've actually successfully sat through an entire Nadja album. They definitely made delivering kebabs and pizza an ethereal experience, I can say that much. Numbness is like many other releases in the sizeable Nadja catalogue; ridiculously fuzzy, enormously slow, miserable yet hopeful and just a little bit pretentious. Numbness offers (to me) nothing new; it is simply Nadja for Nadja's sake. Depending on how much you like Nadja, you may or may not be in for a treat. If you're secretly hoping for the band to mix it up a little bit from the usual template, then you might as well uncross your fingers now. This duo are the Agathocles of the 'slow and moody' universe.
This isn't to say that Numbness is a particularly bad album - it's actually very enjoyable - it's just that it genuinely baffles me how Nadja can release so much of this stuff sounding all the same yet still be able to craft new and genuine songs from it? Surely there is only so much you can do with a drum kit, a synth that apparently plays only one note and a bass guitar that sounds like radio static pumped through a sunn O))) amplifier. At times songs resemble something altogether more Jesu, and others sound almost like Merzbow fell asleep on the lower-end of a keyboard. Closing track "Numb", which builds slowly and with menacing purpose, was set to be my favourite track, until some crazy effect on the drums kinda ruined it for me.
Honestly don't know what to make of this. Really on the fence with Nadja. Guess I just gotta be in the mood to listen to them, which is very, very rare. If you know and love what Nadja is all about though, you'll fucking love this.
PS - after listening to this I found out that this is actually a fucking BEST OF compilation! (??????). I think it's safe to say I'm done with Nadja for the foreseeable future)
This is the first Jesu record I heard and it is still probably one of my favourite releases by him. It also introduced me to Jarboe, which opened up a whole can of worms in my life in the form of Swans (another very long story for another day), who appears here as a special guest, not to mention as a precursor to the pair's collaboration album that would follow. Lifeline was released on the now sadly dying Hydra Head Records, who handled all CD and vinyl presses. As well as the black pressing you've got a golden one the same dirty colour as the EP artwork, and a swanky dirty-gold / black splatter edition, which I've got here.
The song "Lifeline" introduced me to the lush beats and melancholy droning that is Jesu. Gone are the brain-battering barrages that adorned mighty Godflesh tracks; here the sample work is a laid back affair of deep basses and hissing snares, that whilst coming to and fro in the mix alongside the sparkling, hopeful synth sound almost like audible waves of the ocean lapping at stony shores. How the sound sums up the artwork (a photo taken by the man himself) so perfectly! "You Wear Their Masks" continues in the same vein before Jarboe (not to mention Ted Parsons) come along and all of a sudden it's half of 1987-Era Swans up in this bitch. Early Swans basically invented Godflesh so it is rather ironic that all these musicians should work together so many years later and make music that is actually nothing like either early Swans or Godflesh.
"End Of The Road" is one of my favourite Jesu songs ever, with Justin's distant, distorted voice simply crooning "these scars don't heal / I don't mind". Once upon a time, a friend of mine told me that Broadrick sounds like Ville Valo from HIM on this recording and I just can't shake that now, every time I listen to it I'm reminded of that hatted Finnish cocksucker. Similar things have happened in other artist's work, like Godflesh's "Predominance" becoming "Dommelsch" after the Dutch lager, or even worse Electric Wizard's "Venus In Furs" becoming "My Penis, It Burns" (don't try it, I promise you will regret it), but I digress. Lifeline is a fantastic record and a great place to start with the Jesu discography, even if it is not the most logicial.
