Categories
RECORD REVIEWS

JARBOE/JUSTIN K BROADRICK: J2 [The End]

In Swans, singer Jarboe was always the spooky bit of beauty that accentuated and made human the sheer terror of multi-instrumentalist Michael Gira’s sonic holocaust. Post-Swans, whether collaborating or on her own, Jarboe is a sonic counterpoint to the doomy squall that generally accompanies her. Her voice, with all its raw expressiveness, is seldom “pretty.” On J2, Jarboe teams up with the ambient metallurgy of guitarist Justin Broadrick (Jesu, Godflesh). The amorphous spaciousness of Broadrick’s style allows her to almost completely dispense with song-like structures and indulge her most glossolalian tendencies; “Tribal Limo,” for instance, verges on a doom-metal version of Okinawan choral music. The two alternate between hinting at melodies, and on “Romp” and “Magick Girl,” the listener is teased with shards of semi-accessible structure. But for the bulk of J2, Broadrick’s glacial tones and Jarboe’s near-wordless singing evoke a dark heaviness that’s as beautiful as it is scary. [www.theendrecords.com]

—Jason Ferguson

One reply on “JARBOE/JUSTIN K BROADRICK: J2 [The End]”

Comments are closed.