Sutcliffe Jügend

When Pornography Is No Longer Enough (Cold Meat Industry)
by Paul Lee

Painful noise is a genre unto itself and is in fact called “noise” or, as it’s sometimes referred to by Cold Meat Industry, “power electronics.” England’s Sutcliffe Jügend have been creating their own brand of power electronics since the ’80s and there’s little on When Pornography Is No Longer Enough that most of us would consider music. This is pure auditory torture. With their deceptively subtle and elegant white digipak, Sutcliffe Jügend have created a sonic memorial to murder. The sound of When Pornography… is comprised of loads of feedback, distortion, and various yelled lyrics. Some of the twisted track titles include “First Victim: With Knife: Left To Die With Many Cuts,” “Second Victim: With Brutal Force: My Pleasure Your Pain,” and so on – all the way to “Seventh Victim: With A Beauty Beyond Compare: Slow Torture.” What I admire most about Sutcliffe Jügend is that they’re like a piece of incredibly hideous modern art – they elicit a reaction from everyone who’s exposed to it. No one remains apathetic toward power electronics, though I think most people, even those into crazed grindcore, will find it abhorrent. But, it’s always good to see modern music stretched until it is taut beyond belief. I may never become a fan of Sutcliffe Jügend, but this duo and everyone in the genre teach a valuable lesson in the extremes of auditory art.
(PO Box 1881, Linkoping, Sweden 58117)