S&D: Godflesh

anybody seen them on this tour thus far? wondering whether i should shell out $30 bucks. the fact that Cut Hands rather than Prurient is opening makes me feel queasy, but...i LOVE Godflesh.

also, HELLO ILM.

they're fantastic

Seeing them tomorrow in SF!

well, that settles it. i will see you tomorrow, Ned!

Also, Cut Hands are awesome live.

Yeah that was a pretty good set from Cut Hands. Waiting on Godflesh. Table if you're around I'm hanging near the door for now chatting with friends.

New song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWplWgZtDjo

It sounds exactly like you'd expect. Never let it be said that Broadrick doesn't find a sound and run that fucker dry.

http://www.npr.org/2014/09/28/350631204/first-listen-godflesh-a-world-lit-only-by-fire

sounds good

Just bought the new Godflesh album "A World Lit Only By Fire" today. Listening now...

No live drummer. All the drums are done by a drum machine. Programming deliberately emphasizes the inhuman qualities.

In the past Godflesh occasionally did these kind of 'ethereal' songs but there don't seem to be any on this new record, I guess he releases that side of his work under his Pale Sketcher and Jesu monikers now.

No live drummer. All the drums are done by a drum machine. Programming deliberately emphasizes the inhuman qualities.

Um...yes.

Um...yes.

Well it's easy to make a programmed drums sound fairly 'real' these days. What I meant was, the programming deliberately avoids that.

I honestly don't know how to react here. You obviously know about Godflesh and Broadrick's work in general and you're describing something that has been a key part of practically everything they've ever done as something notable and new, and I'm at a loss.

Both Songs of Love & Hate and Hymns (their last album before this one) featured live drummers, though, Ned. As did Jesu. It's fair to point out the importance of a return to programmed drums.

I honestly don't know how to react here. You obviously know about Godflesh and Broadrick's work in general and you're describing something that has been a key part of practically everything they've ever done as something notable and new, and I'm at a loss.

Okay. When Godflesh started, the drum machines they used were incapable of making realistic sounding drums. The technology was not advanced enough. Even if you wanted to, it was impossible to make them sound realistic.

These days however, you can make convincingly realistic drum sounds on a laptop using sample packs. And the latest drum machines can also sound convincingly realistic. So this was an option that Broadrick could have taken if he wanted. But he chose not too.

Broadrick has used samples/loops of real drums before, on some Techno Animal tracks for example and also on some of his remix work. But he hasn't done this on this new Godflesh album. He's deliberately used very primitive artificial sounds for the drums.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that early Godflesh sounded 'primitive' as a result of having no budget and very limited technology. They were simply doing the best with what they had. But now the technology is available to them to make things sound much more 'professional'. And a large budget is no longer necessary. But they have deliberately used modern recording technology in a way to make it sound similar to their early work. So the result is similar but now it's a choice rather than simply unavoidable circumstance.

It might be that having seen them live this year with the drum machine setup (and a hell of a show it was) I'd already locked into that particular drum machine approach again (and 誤訳侮辱, I *did* say 'practically,' not everything everything). And the EP had already demonstrated that further, so I guess I'm neither fazed nor surprised. It's a familiar compositional element.

having seen them live this year with the drum machine setup (and a hell of a show it was)

Which live show did you see?

I would have liked to have seen one of the shows they did with Robert Hampson, I a big Loop/Main fan. To be honest, I'm more excited about the Loop reunion than the Godflesh reunion. I actually prefer Broadrick's Pale Sketcher/JK Flesh/Greymachine releases to the new Godflesh stuff.

This would have been the San Francisco show in April. The joint shows with Loop would have been amazing, no question, but as nothing like that happened over here, alas. Did see Loop a month later in LA. (Solo Robert performances would be even more wonderful but as he mentioned to me, the demand just isn't there for an American tour.)

after an extensive survey I can't help but conclude that post-2001 Godflesh is completely superior in every way to O.G. Godflesh

what makes you say that? i can kinda see it, i love the most recent album and ep, but nothing on them wants to make me punch myself in the face like "avalanche master song"

the older stuff just doesn't reach as deep for me at all. like, I like it, but it feels sort of...academic. whereas from hymns onward, I connect from a gut level

yeah i get that especially with hymns which feels very on the verge of early jesu (i guess obviously) but is still embedded in a fundamentally hostile and evil universe

took a nap to a world lit only by fire tonight and the last track not only woke me up but scared the shit out of me

I liked the last two releases, but for me it's all about Pure, Merciless and Selfless.

i like it all.

New album soon

http://www.side-line.com/godflesh-returns-with-a-brand-new-album-post-self-available-now-on-vinyl-and-cd/

The pre-order link in that article wants $19 for the CD. It is to laugh. Guess I'll be going through Amazon for this one (or waiting till it shows up on Godflesh's own Bandcamp page).

https://godflesh1.bandcamp.com/

Yeah I was surprised no Bandcamp link for it yet.

new song "be god" is extremely encouraging https://godflesh1.bandcamp.com/album/post-self

The new album is good, but uninvolving. Like, you could put it on in the background and do some work, but it doesn't have any songs as strong as the ones on Pure or Selfless or even Streetcleaner. That's been true for a while, though; the only song I remember from A World... is the one that sounds like Killing Joke.

huh i think this is a distinct improvement on the last one, which was def "good but uninvolving"

post self is right up there with streetcleaner for me these days

three years ago i called a world lit only by fire "good but involving" and now i'm fucking obsessed with it, go figure

it is a much more appropriate record for 2021 than 2014 tbf

imo it is the heaviest godflesh record, an achievement unto itself

weirdly enough it's probably the only godflesh record that sounds like streetcleaner, but i also find the execution very different, the drum machine's role more textural, the riffs more punishing and the guitar tone more suffocating, it's like a version of the streetcleaner sound with more sludge metal in it than swans

it also just sounds so evil, especially "carrion" and the last two tracks

the ending of "towers of emptiness" threatens really hard to turn into a s/t-era jesu track and it rules

this is not a complete ranking, just the records of his i've spent the most time with, also no idea how i'd fit god or techno animal in here

post self
jesu
streetcleaner
selfless
messiah
love and hate in dub
a world lit only by fire
conqueror
godflesh ep
pure
silver ep
hymns
slavestate ep
songs of love and hate
us & them
decline & fall

having a real renaissance of emotional connection with jesu's conqueror right now too, like a world lit only by fire it sounds fantastic in 2021, just for different reasons

why didn't anybody tell me Love and Hate in Dub is so fuckin delicious. I also like Songs of Love and Hate as well but Dub is just an improvement all over.

also apparently have never heard the s/t EP - rectifying now.

enjoy having your face smashed with a hammer