Jarboe/Justin K Broadrick

J2 (The End)
by Scott Hefflon

For those familiar with these two, J2 is exactly what you’d expect from their collaboration. For those unfamiliar, Jarboe worked with the NYC artrock/noise legends, Swans. Justin was the mastermind behind Godflesh in late ’80s and early ’90s, a pioneering metal/industrial band, and now fronts Jesu, who’re probably on Hydra Head, and fit nicely there. The pair mesh nicely. Jarboe can be kinda deranged-sweet, like Rasputina, but can surely wail like Mike Patton or Diamanda Galas. She enjoys Middle Eastern yowls, Native American chants, and various worlds of skin-crawling melodies. Justin, well, he can make an acoustic guitar sound sinister, and give him some electronic equipment, and he’ll lure you in with tension-building drone and sparse, tender tinklings, then make your balls shudder with deep-bass throb. (And not in “we kick mad beats” bullshit way, but artful placement of space vs. violence like very few musicians grasp, which is why he’s a legend, dig?)
(www.theendrecords.com)