Jonathan Briley — Complete Works( 7 CD boxset)

Here we have a seven CD boxset collecting together all of the solo work of Jonathan Briley- an enigmatic and decidedly mysterious US sound maker, who between the early to late 1980s carved out his own distinctive, ahead of its time, at points decidedly unnerving body of work that blended and blurred elements of industrial, noise, early dark ambient/ psycho ambient.

The seven-disc set appeared late summer of 2021 on California based Diophantine Discs- who specializes in releasing experimental electronic music- it’s run by Kyle Wright, of improvised analogue synth-based project Dysthymia. The set is presented in a thick card flip side box- with each of the CD’s being presented in their own card slip sleeve. Also featured in the set is a six-page fold-out inlay- and this rather deepens the mystery behind Mr Briley- as there’s no formal bio/ info about the artists. Instead, we get random photos of him( one in a ritual apron), his church of satan membership card, random text snippets, and his rejection letter from the Boston chapter of American Atheists- initially I found the lack of information rather frustrating, but now I’ve played through the box several times- it seems to make sense and adds in its own way a strange pull of the material with-in, which is frankly highly creative and often fairly distinctive in its blend of experimental genre elements, and it’s often deeply unsettling, at times downright frightening air.

 

As far as I can gather Briley was active for only a few years within the American noise/ industrial scene- starting at some point in 1985 then suddenly stopping in 1987/ 88. He released in total five C60 tapes, as well as a C60 comp of unreleased/ live material, a C48 collab with John Zewizz(Sleep Chamber), and had tracks featured on a few industrial/ noise comps. He was for a time, part of early 80’s Us Industrial/ musique concrete/ industro-rock project Sleep Chamber too.

The first disc in the set takes The Will To Power- this originally appeared in 1985 as a C60 on Inner-X-Musick, which was the label of Sleep Chamber’s John Zewizz. The cover artwork features an image of a bare-chested male figure with large nails hammered into it. The release takes in eleven tracks in all, and the tone moves from darkly harrowing, lightly seared and sparse-but-blackly angered. The release opens with chillingly unnerving “Requiem To A Small Blind Boy”- here we find sinisterly hover synth/ organ elements, blended with a very theatrical and eerily preaching male spoken word. As we move through the release we come to the layered unease of “Vivisection” which is a swirling and hazed blend of cat-like whines, choppy electro tones, and animal-like moans/ cries- with a shifting undercurrent of samples regarding testing on animals-all making for one of the most unsettling tracks I’ve ever heard on the subjects of animal testing.
Moving onto what would have been the start of the second side we have the wavering and whistling synth ‘n’ electro tone sourness of “For Silling( The 120 Days)"- which once more finds the theatrical, and latter raging male voice appearing again. We have the uneasy tone harmonics meets sinister rushing water and shoving tones of “13 Steps To The Whipping Pole” which later features pained moans to great chilling effect. With the release been topped off with just over seven minutes of “Shemamforash!” which opens with a creepy and unbalancing mix of pitch melting choir tones and hazed female talk of the bible. As we move on we get the theatrical, now a lot more angered male spoken word elements- these are light echoed and bounce off each other with a backdrop of sparse ritual cymbal bashing, with the monk chants lightly appearing later again. All in all The Will To Power is a most effective and often chilling solo opening from Briley.

Up next on disc number two we have Darker Profits, this once again originally appeared as a C60 on Inner-X-Musick- and it also appeared in the year 1985- artwork wise we have a grainy and murky picture of an old man trying to pull down his bedsheets, as two dark hands pull them over his head. Here we find another eleven tracks- these move from the choppy and wavering militant industrial drums meets melted vocal chants of “Sea Of Bones”, onto deeply sinister reverbing layers of electronics and guitar that is “The Pain Of The Sleep(soundtrack excerpt)" which is a great example of early lightly noised-up psycho ambience. Moving on there is the darting and disorientating junk meets doomy key tolling of “Metal Erection”, there’s the chilling hunting human dialogue samples meets bonding bead darkness-meets sinister hover of “The Hunter”. With the release been topped off with the nearing seven and half minutes of “Site Of Pain, Site Of Pleasure” which mixes galloping synth tones, gruff and angered vocals, and pitch shifting chants/ moans.

Moving onto the third disc in the set- and this features 1986 The Loss Of Innocence. Once again this originally appeared as a C60, which was released by Broken Flag- which was a label set up by the guys behind UK PE/ noise rock project Ramleh. This release takes in ten tracks- moving from the disorientating synth tone, squealing feedback, hitting metal of opening track “Feral”. Onto snapping beats, seesawing harmonics, and cadaver study sample of “Corpus Experimental”, through to the spiral noise haze meets junk reverb hits of “Bestiality”. With the release been topped off with the most harrowing and at points terrifying tracks of the boxset “Bloodfucking”- which opens with a fading in grey drone hover- with on top Briley intoning in an angered manner about whipping and splitting flesh, and blood fucking- with female screams and layered/ reverb chants blended in. I’d put this track on par with the more disturbing and troubling stuff from someone like Khanate- and I wonder if this track was a direct influence on that band's singer Alan Dubin?!.

On disc four we find 1986 At The Mountains Of Madness- this once again originally appeared as a C60, and saw Briley back on Inner-X-Musick. This release featured another twelve tracks, and some of these were remixed/ reworked versions of already released tracks- though there’s a good selection of new material. We have the melted orchestration swoon meets reverberating and forking industrial noise wooziness of “De Natura Sonorum”, and there’s the choppy and shadowy electronics meets synth tone unease and creepy melted samples of “Realm Of The Leaper”. Though the centrepiece of the release is the three-part "Symphony To The Black Fields"- which together run just over the twenty-minute mark- it starts off with a mix of spectral tone hovers & distant -to-stretched samples. As we progress we find tone hoovering and lightly pitch-shifting elements added, as well as latter more pressing ritual textures and murky animistic grunts/ hisses- all creating the most unease sonic stew- that sits somewhere between post-industrial texturing and darkly curdled ambience.
 
Moving onto disc five- and we find 1987’s From Kain To Abel....... again this was originally a C60, and once more appeared on Inner-X-Musick. This release takes in twelve tracks- which brings together warbling sing-song muzak meets sinister backwards vocal elements and pumping beats of “Heaven’s Sounding Sweeter All The Time”. Onto chugging and waving “Untitled” with its reverberating and spread out industrial tones, pitch shifting electronics & guitar scuttles, and slightly spacy synth toning. Through to sexual charged-to-pained female moans and screams meets sluggishly wonky electro texturing of “The Last Time We Made Love”, ending with the hovering and barren ambient ebb of “Final Vision” which blends ‘n’ blurs synth tones, eerie moans, and creepy difficult to make out spoken word sample.

Disc six is entitled Throways- and it features eleven tracks. Five of these are live tracks recorded at the rat club in 1985, and these take in live takes on album tracks, and unreleased tracks- and are suitable murky and unsettling. And six studio tracks from 1988- which go between the simmer tone unease meets forboding industrial chop of “The Final Calling” which as it goes on features what sounds like reversed wolf barks, & strange female sexualized moans. There’s the muffled and hazed “When Fate Meets Detention” which brings together snaping electro tones, sinister guitar feedback, and ambient unease. With the release been topped off with the industrial dark ambient fork and chugg of “Black Fields”. This was once again another c60, which appeared Inner-X-Musick in 1988- and was clearly meant to mop up odds and ends, though it’s still a most worthy release- with the live versions of album tracks been often more chilling and noised up, and the other studio tracks also having worth. 

Lastly, we have disc six which is entitled Compilation Tracks- and does exactly what it says, featuring twelve comp tracks. We go from the reverbed spacy ambience meets chugging lo-fi electro texturing of “Ritual Of The Druids”, there’s the sinister bouncing female spoken word meets baying screams and moans of “Nux Vomica”. There’s “Pain Is Laughter”( feat John Zewizz) which is all about ugly electro trumpeting’s, cold reverb chugg, and muffled voice hoovers. All in all, a good selection of quilty comp tracks.
 
 
If you regularly read my reviews on M[m] you’ll know I very rarely give out a five out of five mark, but that’s what I’m giving this boxset. As it wonderful charts the uneasy, to darkly angered sonic world Jonathan Briley- he truly was a highly distinctive, and darkly talented sound maker- who managed to blend industrial, noise, and ambient genres into his own heady and at points disturbing sonic universe- which largely today still sounds largely un-dated/ fresh in its feel/ attack. Sadly it seems this set has now sold out direct from the label, but apparently, there are still copies available via the labels distributors- so drop by here to find out that list and more about this wonderful boxset