- A Christmas-themed curio by Justin Broadrick.
- Last year, the fashion designer Yang Li held a show loosely themed around his own funeral. He then made a film called Yang Li 1987-2087. That film—and the runway show—was soundtracked by Justin Broadrick, AKA JK Flesh, under his shoegaze-metal alias, Jesu. He performed "Life Mass," a stripped-back version of a song originally called "Christmas." The original was a one-off so obscure that one fan said "no one seems to have heard it or acknowledge its existence." Even if you ignore its earnest Christmas-themed lyrics, "Christmas" isn't among the most distinguished of Jesu tracks. But it does have an emotional, gut-punching riff buried under all that fuzz. Hospital's new re-release wisely makes that its focal point.
This 12-inch features three tracks: the original "Christmas," a remix from Prurient and the "Life Mass" re-recording. On the "Life Mass" version, the clean guitar riff rings out like a funeral roll, and Broadrick's vocals are plaintive. Both dissolve into silence instead of disappearing into Jesu's usual shoegaze fog, which transforms "Christmas" from a novelty track into something raw and vulnerable.
Prurient's remix exposes a different part of the composition: Broadrick's emo vocals, multi-tracked and auto-tuned. Over 11 delirious minutes, they're attacked by hi-hats, bursts of fiery white noise and Prurient's own deadpan rambling, resulting in something that sounds like a wacky outtake from his 2015 album, Frozen Niagara Falls. This remix and the "Life Mass" version strip back Jesu's grandeur to create some of the project's most transfixing material.
TracklistA1 Christmas
A2 Christmas (Life Mass)
B1 Christmas (Prurient Remix)