Posthuman | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 7 May 2012 | |||
Recorded | Avalanche Studios | |||
Genre | ||||
Length |
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Label | 3BY3 | |||
Producer | Justin Broadrick | |||
JK Flesh chronology | ||||
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Posthuman is the debut studio album by JK Flesh, a solo moniker of English musician Justin Broadrick, and was released on 7 May 2012 through 3BY3. [4] Though Broadrick had been creating music under the title of JK Flesh since the early 1990s, [5] Posthuman marked the first release of the project.
On 30 April 2012, the track "Knuckledragger" was released in advance of the album for streaming. [6]
In 2010, Broadrick revived the band he was most known for, Godflesh, and toured with it. In 2011, his secondary shoegaze project, Jesu, released its third album. During this period of activity, Broadrick was creating and compiling material for his first solo electronic album. Posthuman, released on 7 May 2012, came out of those efforts, and, due to preceding any new Godflesh material despite the group being reformed, drew attention for being Broadrick's first album in some time to display the brutal heaviness his early music was known for. [7]
Posthuman synthesizes two sounds that Broadrick had been known for: heavy, downtuned guitars paired with distorted vocals and electronic, dub- and hip hop-influenced beats. [8] Broadrick said Posthuman allowed him to "bridge the gap" that existed between Godflesh and Techno Animal, his electronic project with Kevin Martin. [9] On his employment of guitar for Posthuman, Broadrick said,
It’s rooted in the Godflesh aesthetic, to some extent. It’s mostly about texture, like most of my music. I don’t consider myself a technical musician in any respect at all. It’s another means to an end - I just abuse guitars, really. With JK Flesh, I’m to some extent using the guitar to try and articulate the electronics. I was trying to do something that was just minimal and dissonant, and I just added texture. [1]
Broadrick later regretted the metal fusion on the record. In a 2018 interview he said "I submitted a lot of post-dubstep, techno, and peripheral sounds to the guy at the label and he was like, ‘God, this shit’s great! But imagine if you put some of your Godflesh guitar and vocals in there.’ In retrospect, I wish I just left the stuff minimal." He aimed to rectify this with the next release, Nothing Is Free . [10]
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Drowned in Sound | 7/10 [2] |
Pitchfork | 7.6/10 [7] |
The Quietus | Positive [3] |
The Skinny | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Spin | 8/10 [12] |
Posthuman received favorable reviews. Brian Howe of Pitchfork appreciated the album's brutality and weight, writing, "Posthuman might not fully win back the crowd that Broadrick alienated with dreamy Jesu, but you can't deny that at least he's back to trying to blacken your eyes rather than put stars in them." [7] Writing for The Quietus , Joe Kennedy praised the album's bleakness and surprisingly subtle employment of certain sounds. [3] Pieter J. Macmillan of Drowned in Sound wrote, "If you’ve got a gap in your record collection for a record with the bite and bile of Godflesh and the swing and swagger of dubstep then Posthuman is just the thing to fill it." [2] In a more lukewarm review, Ross Watson off The Skinny wrote, "Cold and detached, dark and demented, Posthuman is an unapologetically difficult listen. With its detached atmosphere and heavy basslines, it has its middle finger pointed firmly in the direction of the post-dubstep crowd, and will come as a welcome curio for fans of this most cultivated figure of underground music." [11]
All music is composed by Justin Broadrick.
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Knuckledragger" | 5:28 |
2. | "Idle Hands" | 6:19 |
3. | "Punchdrunk" | 6:22 |
4. | "Devoured" | 7:04 |
5. | "Posthuman" | 6:31 |
6. | "Earthmover" | 5:45 |
7. | "Dogmatic" | 5:56 |
8. | "Underfoot" | 5:51 |
9. | "Walk Away" | 6:30 |
Total length: | 55:46 |
Adapted from the Posthuman liner notes. [14]
Region | Date | Label | Format | Catalog |
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United Kingdom | 2012 | 3BY3 | CD, LP | 3BY3009 |
Japan | 2012 | Daymare Recordings | 2xCD | DYMC-163 |
United Kingdom | 2015 | Avalanche Recordings | Music download |
Godflesh are an English industrial metal band from Birmingham. The group formed in 1982 under the original title O.P.D. but did not release any complete music until 1988 when Justin Broadrick and B. C. Green (bass) renamed the band and decided to use a drum machine for percussion. Melding heavy metal with industrial music and later with electronic music and dub, Godflesh's sound is widely regarded as a foundational influence on other industrial metal and post-metal acts and as significant to both experimental and extreme metal.
Final is a project of English musician Justin Broadrick, creator of the band Godflesh, which he started when he was 13 years old. Unlike Godflesh, Final is primarily electronic in nature, taking on a space-like, dark ambient sound.
Jesu are a British experimental metal band formed in 2003 by Justin Broadrick following the breakup of his band Godflesh. It shares its name with the last song on Hymns, the final album of Godflesh's initial run. Jesu's sound is heavily layered and textured, incorporating a diverse mix of influences. Broadrick himself has stated that "...it's very loosely speaking pop/rock/metal/electronica ... I'm intentionally writing what I consider to be coherent 'pop' songs".
Justin Karl Michael Broadrick is an English musician, singer and songwriter. He is best known as the lead singer and a founding member of the band Godflesh, one of the first bands to combine elements of extreme metal and industrial music. Following Godflesh's initial breakup in 2002, Broadrick formed the band Jesu.
Streetcleaner is the debut studio album by English industrial metal band Godflesh. It was released on 13 November 1989 through Earache Records and was reissued with a second disc of previously unreleased material on 21 June 2010. The album is widely acclaimed by critics and is often cited as a landmark release in industrial metal; though not the genre's first release, Streetcleaner helped define what industrial metal would become.
Slavestate is the second EP by English industrial metal band Godflesh. It was released in July 1991 through Earache Records. The EP saw the band experimenting with more samples and electronic sounds than their predominantly industrial metal prior releases.
Pure is the second studio album by English industrial metal band Godflesh. It was released on 13 April 1992 through Earache Records. Though originally labeled only as industrial metal, the album has since been recognised as one of the earliest post-metal releases. Musically, Pure is rhythmically mechanical and features harsh guitars, with protracted songs and an abundance of deliberate repetition. Like much of Godflesh's music, it is regarded as particularly heavy and aggressive, and these elements helped it gain critical acclaim.
Ben George Christian Green, also known professionally as G. C. Green and B. C. Green, is an English musician, best known as the co-founder and bass guitarist of the industrial metal band Godflesh.
Selfless is the third studio album by English industrial metal band Godflesh. It was released on 26 September 1994 in Europe and on 18 October 1994 through Earache and Columbia Records. Being the band's major-label debut, the record features a more conventional and rock-oriented sound compared to Godflesh's previous releases. It spawned two singles, "Xnoybis" and "Crush My Soul". The music video for the latter was directed by photographer Andres Serrano.
Hymns is the sixth studio album by English industrial metal band Godflesh. It was released on 23 October 2001 through Music for Nations and was the band's final album before breaking up in 2002. In 2010, Godflesh reformed and in 2014 released their comeback album A World Lit Only by Fire. Hymns had a troubled production and was intended to be distinct departure from Godflesh's intensely regimented industrial sound to something more traditionally hard rock. It was the band's second and final album to feature a live drummer rather than a drum machine.
Kevin Richard Martin, often known under his recording alias The Bug, is an English musician and music producer. Martin moved from Weymouth to London around 1990 and is now currently based in mainland Europe. He has been active for over two decades in the genres of dub, jazzcore, industrial hip hop, dancehall, and dubstep.
Godflesh is the debut EP by English industrial metal band Godflesh. It was originally released in 1988 through Swordfish Records and later saw several reissues on Earache Records with two additional songs. An unexpected underground success, the eponymous EP made it onto the UK Indie Chart and peaked at position 20. Though not supported by any singles or music videos at the time, a fan-made video for "Avalanche Master Song" has since been made official by the band.
This is a partial discography of Justin Broadrick, a prolific English songwriter, guitarist, singer, producer and general multi-instrumentalist musician most known for being the leading force of the industrial metal band Godflesh. Broadrick is also recognized for his experimental project Jesu, his key contributions to the seminal grindcore album Scum (1987) by Napalm Death, and his strong presence in the electronic and industrial remix community.
A World Lit Only by Fire is the seventh studio album by English industrial metal band Godflesh. It was released on 7 October 2014 through frontman Justin Broadrick's own label, Avalanche Recordings, and was the band's first full-length album since 2001's Hymns. It was preceded by the digital singles "New Dark Ages" in August 2014 and "Imperator" in September 2014, and it was followed by several international tours.
Worship Is the Cleansing of the Imagination is a split album between experimental musicians Dominick Fernow under the pseudonym Prurient and Justin Broadrick under the pseudonym JK Flesh. Released on vinyl on December 11, 2012, Worship Is the Cleansing of the Imagination was the final release of new material by Hydra Head Records, the label founded by former Isis member Aaron Turner, during its existence as a full time label.
JK Flesh is a moniker of English musician Justin Broadrick employed for his solo work within electronic music. Broadrick's usage of the title spans back to his work in the 1990s with Kevin Martin in Techno Animal, but he first released a solo studio album as JK Flesh in 2012. Unlike Broadrick's most well-known projects, Godflesh and Jesu, his work as JK Flesh is electronic and lacks metal riffs. Over the years, the project has shifted into a more minimal and dub sound while retaining its industrial influences.
Nothing Is Free is the debut EP of JK Flesh, a pseudonym of English musician Justin Broadrick, and was self-released digitally by Avalanche Recordings on a pay what you want basis on 7 September 2015. It is Broadrick's third release under the JK Flesh title, following the debut studio album, Posthuman (2012), and a split album with Prurient, Worship Is the Cleansing of the Imagination (2012).
Rise Above is the second studio album by JK Flesh, a moniker of English musician Justin Broadrick, and was released digitally and on vinyl on 3 June 2016 through the label Electric Deluxe under the designation EDLX.048. It is Broadrick's fourth release under the JK Flesh title and continues the sparse, drum and bass style of Nothing Is Free, the EP released a year earlier.
Post Self is the eighth studio album by English industrial metal band Godflesh. It was released on 17 November 2017 through frontman Justin Broadrick's own record label, Avalanche Recordings, and was the band's second album since reforming in 2010. The single "Post Self" was released for streaming on 31 October 2017, and a second track, "Be God", was released for streaming on 11 November 2017, six days in advance of the full release. Godflesh avoided interviews in the wake of Post Self, hoping to retain some of the album's purity and give listeners a chance to digest the music in a vacuum.
New Horizon is the third studio album by JK Flesh, a moniker of English musician Justin Broadrick. It was released digitally and on vinyl on 28 September 2018 through the label Electric Deluxe under the designation EDLX.058. The album was preceded by streams of the tracks "Different Species" and "External Transmission Stage" in June and August 2018 respectively.
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