JK Flesh is a moniker of English musician

Justin Broadrick Justin Karl Michael Broadrick (born 15 August 1969) is an English musician, singer and songwriter. He is best known as the lead singer and a founding member of the band Godflesh, one of the first bands to combine elements of extreme metal and i ...

employed for his solo work within

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...

. Broadrick's usage of the title spans back to his work in the 1990s with Kevin Martin in

Techno Animal Techno Animal is an electronic duo formed in 1990 in London, England by British musicians Justin Broadrick (of the band Godflesh) and Kevin Martin (aka the Bug, of the band God). The duo released six LPs beginning with their 1991 debut '' Ghost ...

, but he first released a solo studio album as JK Flesh in 2012. Unlike Broadrick's most well-known projects,

Godflesh Godflesh are an English industrial metal band from Birmingham. The group formed in 1982 under the title Fall of Because but did not release any complete music until 1988 when Justin Broadrick (guitar, vocals and programming) and G. C. Gree ...

and Jesu, his work as JK Flesh is electronic and (apart from ''

Posthuman Posthuman or post-human is a concept originating in the fields of science fiction, futurology, contemporary art, and philosophy that means a person or entity that exists in a state beyond being human. The concept aims at addressing a variety of ...

'') lacks

metal A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...

riffs. Over the years, the project has shifted into a more minimal and dub sound while retaining its

industrial Industrial may refer to: Industry * Industrial archaeology, the study of the history of the industry * Industrial engineering, engineering dealing with the optimization of complex industrial processes or systems * Industrial city, a city dominate ...

influences. As JK Flesh, Broadrick has released four studio albums, five EPs, a split album with

Prurient Ian Dominick Fernow is an American experimental musician, poet and multimedia artist. He is best known for extreme music released under the stage name Prurient, as well as numerous other aliases including Vatican Shadow and Rainforest Spiritual ...

, and a number of remixes.

History

Background

In the early 1990s,

became interested in producing hip hop and

drum and bass Drum and bass (also written as drum & bass or drum'n'bass and commonly abbreviated as D&B, DnB, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by fast breakbeats (typically 165–185 beats per minute) with heavy bass and sub-ba ...

music. While this influence is felt in some of his more prominent releases, like in Godflesh's 1991 EP ''

Slavestate ''Slavestate'' is an EP by industrial metal band Godflesh. It was released in July 1991 through Earache Records. The EP saw the band experimenting with more samples and electronic sounds than their predominantly industrial metal prior releases. ...

'' and 1992 album ''

Pure Pure may refer to: Computing * A pure function * A pure virtual function * PureSystems, a family of computer systems introduced by IBM in 2012 * Pure Software, a company founded in 1991 by Reed Hastings to support the Purify tool * Pure-FTPd, F ...

'', Broadrick fully explored these genres privately in a solo capacity or incorporated the work into his collaborative projects such as

with Kevin Martin. A few of these experiments saw release within various

compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...

s, others such as his short lived projects Tech-Level 2 and Youpho saw releases on British

jungle A jungle is land covered with dense forest and tangled vegetation, usually in tropical climates. Application of the term has varied greatly during the past recent century. Etymology The word ''jungle'' originates from the Sanskrit word ''jaṅ ...

label Hardleaders. Broadrick himself briefly ran a

minimal techno Minimal techno is a subgenre of techno music. It is characterized by a stripped-down aesthetic that exploits the use of repetition and understated development. Minimal techno is thought to have been originally developed in the early 1990s by Detro ...

label in the late 90s called Lo Fibre through which he released EPs of his projects Solaris B.C. with

Diarmuid Dalton Diarmuid Dalton is an Irish musician and songwriter. He is best known as the bass guitarist of post-metal bands, Jesu and Iroha. Dalton frequently collaborates with Justin Broadrick, who is the founder of Godflesh and Jesu. Biography Irish b ...

and The Sidewinder with Martin. A portion of this material was rereleased compiled under the name ''The Lo Fibre Companion'' (1998) on

Invisible Records Invisible Records is a Chicago based record label founded by Martin Atkins Martin Clive Atkins (born 3 August 1959) is an English drummer and session musician, best known for his work in post-punk and Industrial music, industrial groups incl ...

. Broadrick and Dalton would later play together in Jesu and release three albums together as Council Estate Electronics, an

analog synthesizer An analog (or analogue) synthesizer is a synthesizer that uses analog circuits and analog signals to generate sound electronically. The earliest analog synthesizers in the 1920s and 1930s, such as the Trautonium, were built with a variety of ...

project inspired by

Shard End Shard End is an area of Birmingham, England. It is also a ward within the formal district of Hodge Hill. Shard End borders Castle Bromwich to the north and Kingshurst to the east which are situated in the northern part of the neighbouring Metr ...

where they grew up in.

Solo releases

In 2009 Broadrick compiled some of the JK Flesh tracks he created from 1997 to 1999 in an album named ''

From Hell ''From Hell'' is a graphic novel by writer Alan Moore and artist Eddie Campbell, originally published in serial form from 1989 to 1998. The full collection was published in 1999 by Top Shelf Productions. Set during the Whitechapel murders of ...

'' released under the title Krackhead, but it wasn't until 2012 that he fully embarked on the project. In an interview, Broadrick estimated around 17,000 electronic tracks that had created between 1990 and 2012 and were sitting in his archives. Regarding JK Flesh's inception, Broadrick said: JK Flesh performing in 2013

JK Flesh was also conceived as the antithesis of Broadrick's more melodically driven

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that started in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mostly used to r ...

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 Aaron Turner (born November 5, 1977) is an American musician, singer, graphic artist, and founder of label Hydra Head Records. He is most widely known for his role as guitarist and vocalist for the post-metal bands SUMAC and Isis, while also pa ...

from the band

Isis Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingd ...

), a "monolith of nasty, bloated sounding shit". As a project for Broadrick to fully explore niche areas of electronic and

dub music Dub is an electronic musical style that grew out of reggae in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It is commonly considered a subgenre of reggae, though it has developed to extend beyond that style.Dub: soundscapes and shattered songs in Jamaican re ...

, JK Flesh eschews many conventions that he and his listeners had become used to. The project's debut album, ''

'' (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. The heavy guitars ultimately weren't his "long term ..vision for heproject" though, and were instead added based on the label's suggestion. JK Flesh's following releases ventured further into extreme distortion and

with the ''

Nothing Is Free ''Nothing Is Free'' is the debut EP of JK Flesh, a pseudonym of English musician Justin Broadrick, and was self-released digitally by Avalanche Recordings on a pay what you want basis on 7 September 2015. It is Broadrick's third release under the ...

'' EP (2015) and the second album, '' Rise Above'' (2016). The EPs ''

Exit Stance ''Exit Stance'' is an Extended play, EP by JK Flesh, a moniker of English musician Justin Broadrick, and was released on November 30, 2017 through Downwards Records as a Music download, digital download and as a vinyl. Described as more dance-ori ...

'' (2017) and ''

PI04 ''PI04'' (stylized as ''π04'') is the fourth EP by JK Flesh, a moniker of English musician Justin Broadrick, and was released on 2 February 2018 through Pi Electronics. The EP features a remix by American DJ and producer Silent Servant. This is ...

'' (2018) adopted a more purely

techno Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time (4/4) and often ch ...

sound. Following another EP in 2018 titled '' Wasplike'', JK Flesh's third studio album, '' New Horizon'', was released on 28 September 2018.

Influences

Broadrick's electronic work was informed by the early

rave A rave (from the verb: '' to rave'') is a dance party at a warehouse, club, or other public or private venue, typically featuring performances by DJs playing electronic dance music. The style is most associated with the early 1990s dance mus ...

parties he attended in the early 90s seeing

Jeff Mills Jeff Mills (born June 18, 1963, in Detroit, Michigan) is an American DJ, record producer, and composer. Thanks to his technical abilities as a DJ, Mills became known as ''The Wizard'' in the early to mid 1980s. In the late 1980s Mills founded ...

Robert Hood Robert Hood (born 1965 in Detroit, Michigan) is an American electronic music producer and DJ. He is a founding member of the group Underground Resistance as a 'Minister of Information' with Mad Mike Banks and Jeff Mills. He is often conside ...

, Plastikman and

Aphex Twin Richard David James (born 18 August 1971), best known as Aphex Twin, is an Irish-born British musician, composer and DJ. He is known for his idiosyncratic work in electronic music, electronic styles such as techno, ambient music, ambient, and jun ...

as well as his friendship with fellow

Brummie The Brummie dialect, or more formally the Birmingham dialect, is spoken by many people in Birmingham, England, and some of its surrounding areas. "Brummie" is also a demonym for people from Birmingham. It is often erroneously used in referring to ...

Karl O'Connor better known as

Regis Regis or Régis may refer to: People * Regis (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) * Regis (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name) * Regis (musician), full name Karl O'Connor, an Englis ...

, the head of

Downwards Records Downwards Records is a record label founded by the techno DJs and producers Regis and Female in Birmingham, England in 1993. The label was initially established to release the set of tracks that fellow Birmingham DJ and producer Surgeon had recor ...

. Broadrick also went on to call

Dillinja Karl Francis, also known as Dillinja, is a British jungle/drum and bass DJ and record producer. Biography Dillinja is a prolific producer and artist within the jungle and drum and bass scene. Since 1991, Dillinja has produced a number of track ...

his "favorite producer of filthy bass and cutting breakbeats, absolutely direct, textures unlike any, the ultimate

DnB Drum and bass (also written as drum & bass or drum'n'bass and commonly abbreviated as D&B, DnB, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by fast breakbeats (typically 165–185 beats per minute) with heavy bass and sub-ba ...

producer". Broadrick has also credited

Moritz von Oswald Moritz von Oswald (born 1962) is a German record producer and percussionist from Hamburg and based in Berlin. He is a co-founder of the production duo and record label Basic Channel. He has collaborated with Juan Atkins, Carl Craig, and Nils P ...

dub techno Dub techno is a subgenre of techno that combines the style with elements of dub music, including its sparse, delay-heavy production and prominent bass. Characteristics and history In the early 1990s, producers Moritz Von Oswald and Mark Ernestu ...

projects

Basic Channel Basic Channel is a German music duo and record label, composed of Moritz von Oswald and Mark Ernestus, that originated in Berlin in 1993. The duo have also worked under other names, including Rhythm & Sound and Maurizio, and have founded offshoot ...

and Maurizio as well as his record label

Chain Reaction A chain reaction is a sequence of reactions where a reactive product or by-product causes additional reactions to take place. In a chain reaction, positive feedback leads to a self-amplifying chain of events. Chain reactions are one way that syst ...

as a main influence on JK Flesh. JK Flesh's sound has also been compared to

Andy Stott Andy Stott is a British electronic musician and producer, living in Manchester. Biography His debut album was ''Merciless'' in 2006, and was followed by ''Unknown Exception'' (2008) and ''Luxury Problems'' in 2012. ''Passed Me By'' (2011) mar ...

and Ancient Methods.

Discography

Studio albums

* ''

'' (2012) * '' Rise Above'' (2016) * '' New Horizon'' (2018) * ''Depersonalization'' (2020) * ''New Religions Old Rules'' (2022) * ''Sewer Bait'' (2022)

EPs

* ''

'' (2015) * '' Suicide Estate / Suicide Estate Antibiotic Armageddon'' (2016) * ''

'' (2017) * ''

'' (2018) * '' Wasplike'' (2018) * ''In Your Pit'' (2019) * ''Veneer of Tolerance'' (2022)

Collaboration albums

* ''Light Bringer'' with

Orphx Orphx is a Canadian music duo made up of Rich Oddie and Christina Sealey who perform techno, industrial and experimental music. They have performed worldwide and have numerous releases on CD, vinyl and cassette through independent music labels ...

(live) (2019) * ''Echology Vol 1'' with Echologist (2020) * ''Disintegration Dubs'' with G36 (2021)

Split releases

* '' Worship Is the Cleansing of the Imagination'' with

(2012) * ''Knights of the Black Table'' with Goth-Trad (2019) * ''Halved'' with Klaska (2019) * ''See Red'' (2021) - split EP with Monrella * ''JK Flesh Vs. Gnod'' (2021)

Singles

* "

" (2016) * "Dissociation ( Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement Extended Remix)" (2020)

Other

* ''Submerged Technology'' – album released as Solaris B.C. (2009) * ''From Hell'' – album released as Krackhead (2009) * "No Self Control" – track on the ''A Disseminated Darkness on Inner Personality Status'' compilation (2016) * "Need for Ritual" – unreleased track on the ''Electric Deluxe 170'' podcast (2016) * "The Stranger" – unreleased track on the ''Secret Thirteen 200'' podcast (2016) * "Entitlement Issues" – track on the ''Unrelenting Noise VA001'' compilation (2017) * "One Desire No Purpose" – unreleased track on the ''

Solid Steel ''Solid Steel'' are a series of DJ mix albums issued on Ninja Tune, an independent record label in the UK. ''Solid Steel'' also has a radio station webcast and related live concerts which further showcase the DJing talents of such artists. In 1 ...

'' podcast (2017) * "Light Bringer" – collaborative track with

on the '' Berlin Atonal – Force Majeure'' compilation (2017) * "Dog (feat. JK Flesh)" and "Pray (feat. JK Flesh)" – bonus tracks on ''Concrete Desert'' by

The Bug "The Bug" is a song written by Mark Knopfler and originally performed by Dire Straits on the final studio album by the band, '' On Every Street'' (1991). It was covered by Mary Chapin Carpenter in 1992, and also recorded on the albums ''Blues B ...

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

(2017) * "Being" – track on the ''Elephant Road'' compilation (2017) * "Black Market – track on ''No Exit Strategy of Certain Benefit'' split (2018) * "Warning" – track on the ''Music 2 Heal the Earth'' compilation (2018) * "Chelmsley Wood" – track on the ''Variable'' compilation (2018) * "Underpass (Weightless Version)" – track on the ''Shared Meanings'' mix/compilation by Mumdance (2018) * "Inquisition" – track on the ''V.A. – 0.02'' compilation (2019) * "Static Demon" – track on the ''Limits Of Existence Vol.4'' compilation (2019) * "Decontrol" – track on the ''

Berghain Berghain () is a nightclub in Berlin, Germany. It is named after its location near the border between Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain in Berlin, and is a short walk from Berlin Ostbahnhof main line railway station.

09'' mix/compilation by Vatican Shadow (2019) * "House Of Fun" – track on the ''V.A. – 0.03'' compilation (2019) * "The Simplicity Of Ignorance" – track on the ''Against The Grain Vol2'' compilation (2019) * "Human Pack Animals" – track on the ''Dogfight'' compilation (2019) * "Jellyfish" – track on the "Murder 01" compilation (2020) * "Live In Amsterdam" with

– track on the ''Divide & Rule'' compilation (2020)

Remixes

* Necessary Intergalactic Cooperation – "Big Smoke Dub" (2007) *

Final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

– "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 Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organiza ...

– "Men Today (JK Flesh Remix)" (2017) * These Hidden Hands – "Dendera Light (JK Flesh Remix)" (2017) *

Survive Survival, or the act of surviving, is the propensity of something to continue existing, particularly when this is done despite conditions that might kill or destroy it. The concept can be applied to humans and other living things (or, hypotheti ...

– "Other (Justin K Broadrick as JK Flesh Remix)" (2017) * Addremove – "Crie (JK Flesh Remix)" (2017) * Dead Fader – "FYI (JK Flesh Remix)" (2017) *

– "In Your Shadow (JK Flesh Reshape)" (2017) * End Christian – "Altered for Concern (JK Flesh Mix)" (2018) * Phal:Angst – "The Books (JK Flesh Remix)" (2018) * Pessimist – "New Age (JK Flesh Remix)" (2019) * Joe Mesmar – "Transistor Rhythm" (JK Flesh Extended Reshape) – two mixes (2019) *

Sons of Alpha Centauri Sons of Alpha Centauri (sometimes abbreviated to SOAC) is an English instrumental rock band based in Borough of Swale, Swale, Kent. Founded in 2001 by Nick Hannon and Marlon King, the band has developed and borrowed from a range of styles from ...

– "Hitmen (JK Flesh Remix)" (2019) * I Murdered – "Insomnia (JK Flesh Remix)" (2019) * Vatican Shadow – "The House of the Followers (JK Flesh Remix)" (2019) * Paragon – "Black Imagining (JK Flesh Remix)" (2020) * Viviankrist – "Blue Iron (Iron Flesh Reshape by JK Flesh)" (2020)

References

{{Authority control Musical groups from Birmingham, West Midlands Noise musical groups British industrial music groups Dark ambient music groups English electronic music groups English experimental musical groups