Sutcliffe Jugend — With Extreme Prejudice
electronica, atmospheric modern electronic composition, power electronics, wavering ‘n’ sour drone matter, and dense muilt-layered noise matter. The album finds the project steping further away from it's original power electronics bracket into a undefined sonic place that is purely of their own deranged & unsettling invention.
For most of it’s runtime this album is deeply dense, layered and complex beast ; electronic textures shifting, jerk & hammer, as slightly off-kilter but often harmonic & atmospheric synth textures seer & ebb with controlled noise textures. And then of course there’s Kevin Tompkins one off vocal delivery that tops the whole thing off, and this sounds like a cross between unhinged carnival barker, an character actor having a breakdown , and a man at the end of his sanity.
The intensity & dense noisiness of the album only really subsides in a few places over the 11 tracks on offer here: “Lucky” which mixes ugly & unwell electronic fly like buzzes ‘n’ dirges , droning string discomfort & spoken word sleazy story telling. The stumbling ‘n’ sinister “oblivion” that stirs togeather wound down twanging guitar textures, warbling & sickly vocal textures, and Tompkins drunken/ theatrical vocals.
The thing that impressed me most about the album was the tracks ability to mix together uneasy & seared noise with memorable & often highly dramatic melodies. One thing I do miss a little is the project often dark & twisted sense of humour which seems to be all but gone on this album- but I guess it might have lessened the angered, unwell & unhinged vibe that pervades the albums sonic corridors.
So to sum-up “With Extreme Prejudice” is a very unsettling, complex and muilt-layer record, that’s lined & ebb with often memorable & dramatic textures/ melodies. A must have for those who enjoy violent, yet often complex sonic fare that has a deranged & unwell vibe running through it.