Godflesh: Streetcleaner (Earache)
Purchased used at The Attic
My friend Josh Wulff said to me once, the one common interest of him and Adam MacGregor was Godflesh.
It would help if you knew who both Josh and Adam are. Both play guitar. Josh studied at Duquesne University, and his interests are more jazz-oriented but he has a history of going to the old City Limits club and seeing metal bands there. We have a history playing together, as a duo, in Sound/Unsound, Throckmorton Plot, and even some pickup jazz gigs.
Adam is the more extreme metal musician, playing in Brown Angel ("Pittsburgh's Most Depressing Band" read one headline), Conelrad, Creation as Crucifixion, and bass with Microwaves. I've sat in with Brown Angel, Conelrad, and Microwaves, and he and I have played some improvised duo and trio arrangements.
Truth told, Josh was probably exaggerating. I'm sure their tastes coincide far more than just this one band. But I also see it. I know Adam really enjoys Godflesh.
The band's arrangement is either two or three players, not including the drum machine. With three on this album, the lineup is closest to that of Big Black, though Godflesh doesn't particularly sound like them. Even if I hadn't read it on a Wikipedia page, I would have accurately guessed their fundamental influence, that being Killing Joke. A pre-Godflesh version of the band was named Fall of Because, putting a KJ reference up front and center.
Heavy, simple riffage; distorted, barely sung vocals; noisy guitars; it all checks. Song titles such as, "Like Rats" "Dream Long Dead" "Christbait Rising" "Streetcleaner" (nickname for an Uzi), have I made my point that it's not a happy-time band?
This, their second LP dating from 1989, definitely sounds of a period. Think of the time of early Swans, Big Black, Butthole Surfers. The sound seems a bit thin to me now, but maybe that's because I've heard the monsterously-huge sounding productions of, say, White Zombie. But that to me is too much, that wall of highly compressed sound, and I prefer this.
On the one hand, I like the economy of means of Godflesh and Big Black, two or three guys making a huge sound and keeping the rhythm section stripped down with a drum machine. Not dealing with a drummer immensely simplifies logistics.
On the other hand, an essential part of the Killing Joke sound is the cavernous-sounding drums. The drum machine is reliable and will keep tempo properly of course, but I think I prefer the flexibility of a real drummer, the variety of ways the playing can be changed or mixed up while at the same time kept direct and simple.
Bands such as this in metal circles are often described as "experimental", a word I avoid in general due to its mis- or over-use. And not to sound too academic, they do have a broader sound palette than your average straight forward heavy metal band (whatever that means). There's mixed in found (?) voices at the start of the second side, for example. The first side ends with the drum machine stopping and the guitars working more of a drone texture.
But then, I'm generally in favor of artists pushing at the conventions of their idioms. Jazz groups without a bass for example, or like this, some sort of quasi-metal band that doesn't have a drummer.
I'm sure this one will find its way to my turntable again, especially if I'm feeling depressed and want to listen to something more bleak.
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