Jesus Fucking Christ is the brainchild of sole singer, producer and instrumentalist Remi Semshaug Langseth. This latest five track offering, ‘Homophobia Is Like Totally Gay’, sees him continue to expand on his particular brand of crossover punk/electro/rock/pop. In general, there’s two ways of looking at this EP – an immature, attention grabbing exercise or a considered, tongue in cheek social satire.
‘Doomsday Device’ sets a malevolent tone befitting its title; deep, pulsating synths grind on, building layer on unsettling layer. Motes of spoken word samples run as an undercurrent to the atmospheric, if a little cluttered, wall of synth. Stabs and flickers of white noise cut in before a drum beat nails down the end of the track, which concludes with a repeated synth vamp.
Where the opener is an example of maturity, the second track sits firmly in the realm of the immature (if the title ‘Pope On A Rope’ didn’t give it away). Langseth offers some raw, screamed vox that cause his voice to crack, and among the buzz-saw synths and burbling bass tones there is a truly excruciating ‘rap’ section, before some more melodic vocals give a touch of low-rent Nine Inch Nails and the song ends on a deliberately uncomfortable to listen to synth wave.
‘Imma Gonna Kick U In Da Face‘ and ‘Sometimes My Arms Bend Back’ don’t offer much else in the way of progress. Both come across as a heavily layered mish-mash of jarring synths, repetition, occasional keyboard or guitar chords, the shrieked/clean vocal opposition and the odd sample. Annoyance levels peak with the female voices chanting the band name during the latter track.
This said, ‘Love You 2 Bits’ redeems these other tracks somewhat. Slightly flatulent synths and stuttering drums give a more industrial feel, and the layered melodic vocals are well done. The song begins with and sustains a more consistent tone, arguably somewhat of a ballad, again comparable to something Trent Reznor might have concocted. Sadly, this tone peters out, washed away in another schizoid flurry of ‘everything at once’.
There are moments of quality on offer here, but these seem to be bitch slapped into the fringes by childish overindulgence and an attention span that flits around without settling on any one theme for too long. But hey, maybe that’s the point.
