Ahhh, another Jesu split. I thoroughly enjoyed the record done with Eluvium, and Justin Broadrick tends to have good taste with who he works with. Part about Envy that is completely not thought-out. Read at your own risk: I do not know much about Envy, so this is my first exposure to them. They seem to be in a similar dark/electronica vibe as Eluvium, but a lot more rhythmic. They have the same deep bass and atmospheric noise going on that Jesu showed on Lifeline, and it seems a great fit for this particular EP. The EP starts out with a slow relaxed beat, with some initially sparse electronics/sampling over top, and slowly progresses into a fuller sound. The first song is accompanied by some spoken word in Japanese. This relaxed feel continues on the next two songs. It's a little less experimental than what you'd expect Jesu to be, but it's fantastic relaxation music. Most of Envy's songs on this EP seem to follow the slow buildup, but there are more evident pop sensibilities to their songs, which makes for a more relaxed listen in this genre. There's some harsher parts in the third song (Caught in the Rain), but it still maintains the same level of pop feel of the first two. Amusingly, the middle of the song harkens to late-era Sentenced somewhat, with the gruff but intelligable vocals. On to the Jesu part, which is what I was really looking for in this EP. Like the title implies, he has really moved completely away from the Godflesh sound. The fullness of the production is still there, but he really is going for a really lush, pretty, dreamy, drug-induced state also present on Lifeline and parts of his other EPs. In fact, his vocals are even dreamier on this disc. Hidden in layers of chorus and reverb, you have to keep yourself from nodding off (in a good way). Gone are the harsh vocals and bass, and in their place is very relaxed (but punchy) drumming and floaty bass supported with very atmospheric guitar and LAYERS of keyboards. Where distorted guitars do show up, it's a giant wash of formless chords. This reminds me a LOT of the 90s shoegaze scene, and bands like Slowdive. This EP is pretty much what Justin has been going for progressively in his last few discs. If you like ambient music and electronica, this is an enjoyable split, but I don't think you miss out much by skipping it. It's a great example of what Jesu will become, but Justin is very much experimenting on here, something he has done a lot with his EPs (both in Godflesh and Jesu). We're all waiting for the next full-length, and I'm sure we'll see a lot of the influences from this kind of music there.
Check out their other work. You're a bit off base with your assessment. And to me it's no question that Envy > Jesu
off base in this review or because the band plays different stuff? I noted that I hadn't heard their stuff before, so I'm just going on what's on this split.
no i wasn't trying to knock you or your review, just that Envy started out as a hardcore band then slowly began adding in more elements of post-rock into their sound. i highly suggest you check them out. they do sound a bit different on this ep, but their sound keeps evolving and it's fantastic.
That's actually pretty awesome. There was an obvious harsh section in their last song, so that caught me by (pleasant) surprise. Thanks for clarifying, I'll definitely check out more of their stuff.
It truly is an amazing split. It was my first real look at Envy, but I have a friend who has been on my case about listening to them for months. One of his favourite bands. Anyhow, the entire split is really dreamy. The songs all go together pretty beautifully
