I’d been pretty excited about this release for some time, and as a long-time fan of JK Broadrick in his many incarnations am abundantly aware of what he’s capable of. Yet despite this, I still find my jaw dropping within seconds of hitting ‘play’. The sheer density and mangled intensity of ‘Knuckledragger’ immediately demonstrates why Broadrick is so esteemed and so influential.
The bass on ‘Idle Hands’ isn’t so much dubby as subsonic, while at the same time spanning a vast spectrum of low-range frequencies, creating a sound that fills so much space there’s barely room to breathe. Grating guitars blend in while adding some mid-range and treble, and distorted vocals way down in the mix battle against an industrial percussion.
Yes, it’s a return to the Godflesh sound of sorts, in terms of the grinding trudge and repetitious riffs, but clearly informed by elements of Broadrick’s other projects, notably Techno Animal (as the moniker suggests – Broadrick’s recorded under numerous names, with JK Flesh being the one which features on his Techno Asnimal output). ‘Punchdrunk’ is a crawl of sludge, reminiscent of ‘Avalanche Master Song’, only with a bass tone heavier than black mass, and doom-style vocals that are distorted to fuck and frankly terrifying.
It’s hardly like Broadrick has anything to prove, but on ‘Posthuman’ it seems as though he’s determined to restate his supremacy as the absolute master of industrial weight. That isn’t to say it sounds forced, because it doesn’t: it’s more a case of having explored lighter shades of grey with Jesu, he’s decided it’s time to go back to the blackest of blacks, conjuring a vortex of noise.
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‘Devoured’ draws more overtly on dance sounds and structures, but it’s a slow groove that features a bass drum so heavy it could displace planets, and the vocals are so processed as to become another instrument. The title track is dancier still, but it’s hardly your regular nightclub fodder. It’s the soundtrack to a disco nightmare, a colossal pile-up of oscillating frequencies and a beat so immense it’s enough to cave in the strongest cranium if played at club volume.
‘Posthuman’ is a truly colossal album, and bone-shatteringly heavy. But more than that, it abundantly shows that Broadrick is still expanding the terrain he broke in the first place, and looks set to remain well ahead of the game for a long time yet.
JK Broadrick Online
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