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JK Flesh
Justin Broadrick performing as JK Flesh at Roadburn 2012
Justin Broadrick performing as JK Flesh at Roadburn 2012
Background information
OriginBirmingham, England, UK
Genres
Years active2012–present
LabelsAvalanche Recordings
Electric Deluxe
Hospital Productions
Downwards Records
MembersJustin Broadrick
WebsiteOfficial website

JK Flesh is a moniker of English musician Justin Broadrick employed for his solo work within "heavy" or "brutal" electronica music.[1] 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.[2] Unlike Broadrick's most well-known projects, Godflesh and Jesu, his work as JK Flesh is electronic and (apart from Posthuman) lacks metal riffs.[3] Over the years, the project has shifted into a more minimal and dub sound while retaining its industrial influences.

As JK Flesh, Broadrick has released three studio albums, five EPs, a split album with Prurient, and a number of remixes.[4]

History

Background

In the early 1990s, Justin Broadrick became interested in producing hip hop and drum and bass music.[5] While this influence is felt in some of his more prominent releases, like in Godflesh's 1991 EP Slavestate and 1992 album Pure,[6] Broadrick fully explored these genres privately in a solo capacity or incorporated the work into his collaborative projects such as Techno Animal with Kevin Martin. A few of these experiments saw release within various compilation albums, others such as his short lived projects Tech-Level 2 and Youpho saw releases on British jungle label Hardleaders. Broadrick himself briefly ran a minimal techno label in the late 90s called Lo Fibre through which he released EPs of his projects Solaris B.C. with Diarmuid Dalton and The Sidewinder with Martin.[5] A portion of this material was rereleased compiled under the name The Lo Fibre Companion (1998) on Invisible Records. Broadrick and Dalton would later play together in Jesu and release three albums together as Council Estate Electronics, an analog synthesizer project inspired by Shard End where they grew up in.[7][8]

Solo releases

In 2009 Broadrick compiled some of the JK Flesh tracks he created from 1997 to 1999 in an album named From Hell released under the title Krackhead, but it wasn't until 2012 that he fully embarked on the project.[9] In an interview, Broadrick estimated around 17,000 electronic tracks that had created between 1990 and 2012 and were sitting in his archives.[10] Regarding JK Flesh's inception, Broadrick said:

I felt in the late 2000s that I finally wished to pursue this solo, and the JK Flesh pseudonym seemed most fitting since this was my pseudonym in the projects Kevin Martin and I shared [...] It feels free for me to explore the heavier side of what I love about techno, grime/garage, drum and bass, etc.[5]

JK Flesh performing in 2013

JK Flesh was also conceived as the antithesis of Broadrick's more melodically driven electronica project Pale Sketcher, with JK Flesh constituting "the angry, hateful, disenchanted side of [...] electronic beat-driven, bass-driven music". It is also an "electronic continuation" of Greymachine (his project with Aaron Turner from the band Isis), a "monolith of nasty, bloated sounding shit".[11]

As a project for Broadrick to fully explore niche areas of electronic and dub music, JK Flesh eschews many conventions that he and his listeners had become used to. The project's debut album, Posthuman (2012), still features heavily downtuned guitars, thick distortion, and a bleak mood–aspects all common in Broadrick's other music–but the beats are less industrial and more dance- and techno-oriented.[12] The heavy guitars ultimately weren't his "long term [...] vision for [the] project" though,[3] and were instead added based on the label's suggestion.[10]

JK Flesh's following releases ventured further into extreme distortion and drum and bass with the Nothing Is Free EP (2015) and the second album, Rise Above (2016).[13] The EPs Exit Stance (2017) and PI04 (2018) adopted a more purely techno sound.[14] Following another EP in 2018 titled Wasplike,[15] JK Flesh's third studio album, New Horizon, was released on 28 September 2018.[16]

Influences

Broadrick's electronic work was informed by the early rave parties he attended in the early 90s seeing Jeff Mills, Robert Hood, Plastikman and Aphex Twin as well as his friendship with fellow Brummie Karl O'Connor better known as Regis, the head of Downwards Records.[5] Broadrick also went on to call Dillinja his "favorite producer of filthy bass and cutting breakbeats, absolutely direct, textures unlike any, the ultimate DnB producer".[17] Broadrick has also credited Moritz von Oswald's dub techno projects Basic Channel and Maurizio as well as his record label Chain Reaction as a main infuence on JK Flesh.[18]

JK Flesh's sound has also been compared to Andy Stott and Ancient Methods.[13]

Discography[4][19]

Studio albums

EPs

Split releases

Singles

  • "Nothing Is Free" (2016)

Other

  • From Hell – album released as Krackhead (2009)
  • "No Self Control" – track on the A Disseminated Darkness on Inner Personality Status compilation (2016)
  • "Light Bringer" – collaborative track with Orphx on the Berlin Atonal - Force Majeure compilation (2017)
  • "Dog (feat. JK Flesh)" – bonus track on Concrete Desert by The Bug vs. Earth (2017)
  • "Pray (feat. JK Flesh)" – bonus track on Concrete Desert by The Bug vs. Earth (2017)
  • "Being" – track on the Elephant Road compilation (2017)
  • "Warning" – track on the Music to Heal the Earth compilation (2018)
  • "Chelmsley Wood" – track on the Variable compilation (2018)
  • "Underpass (Weightless Version)" – track on the Shared Meanings compilation (2018)

Remixes

  • Necessary Intergalactic Cooperation – "Big Smoke Dub" (2007)
  • Final – "Inanimate Air (JK Flesh Remix)" (2010)
  • Cloaks – "Rust On Metal (JK Flesh Remix)" (2011)
  • Jesu – "Christmas (JK Flesh Remix)" (2012)
  • Violetshaped – "cX31Ø (JK Flesh Reshape)" (2013)
  • RA – "Paz Podre (JK Flesh Remix)" (2014)
  • AnD – "Non Sky Signal Noise (Justin Broadrick as JK Flesh Remix)" (2015)
  • Necessary – "Insisting on Racial Name Calling (JK Flesh Remix)" (2015)
  • Health – "Men Today (JK Flesh Remix)" (2017)
  • These Hidden Hands – "Dendera Light (JK Flesh Remix)" (2017)
  • Survive – "Other (Justin K Broadrick as JK Flesh Remix)" (2017)
  • Addremove – "Crie (JK Flesh Remix)" (2017)
  • Dead Fader – "FYI (JK Flesh Remix)" (2017)
  • Godflesh – "In Your Shadow (JK Flesh Reshape)" (2017)
  • End Christian – "Altered for Concern (JK Flesh Mix)" (2018)
  • Phal:Angst – "The Books (JK Flesh Remix)" (2018)

References

  1. ^ Dicker, Holly. "Resident Advisor JK Flesh biography". Resident Advisor. Retrieved 29 November 2017.
  2. ^ "JK Flesh at Bandcamp". Bandcamp. Retrieved 29 November 2017.
  3. ^ a b Raggett, Ned. "Songs of the 'Flesh – The Strange World of... Justin Broadrick". The Quietus. Retrieved 29 November 2017.
  4. ^ a b "JK Flesh at Discogs". Discogs. Retrieved 29 November 2017.
  5. ^ a b c d "An Interview With JK Flesh". The Brvtalist. Retrieved 29 November 2017.
  6. ^ Raggett, Ned. "Godflesh – Pure". AllMusic. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  7. ^ https://councilestateelectronics.bandcamp.com/
  8. ^ https://glacialmovements.bandcamp.com/album/arktika
  9. ^ From Hell (digital liner notes). Krackhead. Avalanche Recordings. 2009. AREC013. Retrieved 12 June 2018.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  10. ^ a b Broadrick, Justin (21 April 2018). "EX.406 Justin Broadrick – Kicking against the pricks with the Birmingham prodigy". Resident Advisor (Interview). Interviewed by Holly Dicker. Retrieved 17 May 2018.
  11. ^ Dicker, Holly. "Playing Favourites: Justin Broadrick". Resident Advisor. Archived from the original on 12 June 2018. Retrieved 19 February 2018. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  12. ^ Kennedy, Joe. "JK Flesh, Posthuman". The Quietus. Retrieved 29 November 2017.
  13. ^ a b Farrar, Justin. "JK Flesh – Rise Above". Resident Advisor. Retrieved 29 November 2017.
  14. ^ Ryce, Andrew. "JK Flesh – Exit Stance". Resident Advisor. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  15. ^ Farrar, Justin. "JK Flesh – Wasplike EP". Resident Advisor. Retrieved 26 June 2018.
  16. ^ "Speedy J's Electric Deluxe Announces JK Flesh Album, 'New Horizon'". XLR8R. Retrieved 26 June 2018.
  17. ^ "NE116: Justin Broadrick Makes Us a Mix of Twisted Drum & Bass Tracks". Self-Titled. Retrieved 12 October 2018.
  18. ^ Biazzetti, Claudio. "The Techno Dub According to JK Flesh". Rolling Stone (in Italian). Retrieved 29 September 2018.
  19. ^ "JK Flesh at Soundcloud". Soundcloud. Retrieved 29 November 2017.
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