Reviews:

From Plan B: (by Noel Gardner)

  Sutcliffe Jugend recently commented that one of their primary aims in recent times was to dissociate themselves from the shadow of Whitehouse, their British power electronics peers in the early Eighties. As the two duos have no meaningful connection circa 2008, this is quite understandable, but when it comes to sexually fixated hysteria and Monty Python pepperpot vocals, there aren't many other points of reference. Still, there are plenty of other things that gurgle through your mind during the quite extraordinary Pigdaddy: Derek And Clive, Don Van Vliet's singing voice, Kurt Schwitters, Blue Jam, rubbernecking at street arguments while walking home at 2am and, in the case of the title track, this dream where I was trying to tune in to radio to listen to 'Sir' Ben Kingsley's character in Sexy Beast commentation on a horse race.

From Synthesis: (by Troy Southgate)

  AFTER reviewing Sutcliffe Jugend's 'We Spit On Their Graves' (1997) and the group's more recent split with Satori, 'Japan Tour 2007' (2007), I was naturally eager to see what brutal delights this latest release would offer. Kevin Tomkins and Paul Taylor, who started out in Whitehouse back in 1982, are rightly perceived by many as being the true patriarchs of power electronics. Tomkins artwork - depicting the 'disgusting fucked-up filth bile that is Pigdaddy' - glares out from the cover like the bastard love-child of J.R.R. Tolkien's Golem and Tony Hart's Morph. It's a shaven-headed mass of pink blubber that looks like a plasticene Telly Savalas snagging his testicles on a thorn bush. The admirable thing about Sutcliffe Jugend is that they are not afraid to tackle some of the worst excesses of human nature, including controversial matters such as serial killing and paedophilia. And unlike the liberals and do-gooders of this world, they do not believe that everyone is either redeemable or worth redeeming in the first place. The opening track, 'Insult', is full of deep booms and nasty squeals. The vocals are characteristically aggressive and, combined with the deep-bass tones, harbour a deliciously retro dimension that reminds me somewhat of Throbbing Gristle's 'Very Friendly'. It's certainly as hostile and provocative as far as the sentiments are concerned. As the track slows down like a diseased heart, a few percussive effects enter the frame before making way for 'Defacer'. A bombastic humming and murderously seductive vocals skim across the wailing frequencies like vitriolic pebbles over a radioactive sea. The results are brilliant. Pure hatred is half-sung, half-yelled in a ferocious torrent of rancorous venom. 'Pigdaddy' begins as a garbled sludge of deadly threats and aural vicissitude. The track lacks the semi-coherent rhythms of the former and is a rambling mess of generated noise and distortion: 'Who's the dadddyyyy? Who's the fuckin' Pigdaddy?!' The lyrics are a brutal litany of spite and sarcasm, sexual innuendo and scorn. Forget Derek & Clive 'Get the Horn', this is Kev & Paul 'Get the Whore'. The next track, 'Filth' - yes, there's more! - is a stuttering cacophony of unmelodious disfigurement that stabs at the flab-strewn streets of contemporary society with vengeance and wrath. Nothing is sacred in the world of SJ and between crowded chants and twisted anger your ears drown in a tangled hullabaloo. 'Dirty' rediscovers the tempo of the earlier tracks as rasping barks and electronic explosions provide a rhythmic backdrop for what sounds like a manufactured exercise in domestic chaos. And it even has a sing-a-long chorus! The final track, 'Nonce', and by far the longest, returns to the squealing commotion of before. After three-minutes of vocal energy the verbal onslaught rests for a little while before returning again like a bad smell that just won't go away. It's impossible to make out many of the lyrics here, but the vicious tone is unmistakable. After five tracks in which the loathing and abhorrence has been building up to a frenzy, it is now released like a fountain of bloody semen. Things settle down just before the eight-minute mark and the final three minutes quiver and shake like an electrocuted cadaver. This is a very powerful album and you'll be left wondering why Messrs. Tompkins and Taylor aren't occupying the inside of a padded cell.

From TeRRoR:

  Sutcliffe Jugend is one of the band that is not needed any wide introduction. They are one of those whales of power electronics, that released 10 cassettes, called "We Spit on Their Graves" in the very beginning of ninth decade and this set is still thought to be one of the most brutal and sick power electronics albums of all time. Having a peek at their discography, it seems that they need many years to mature thoughts and ideas or find appropriate sounding, but after years of silence, Sutcliffe Jugend bursts like an abscess spitting all stinking aesthetic to the world. Pigdadddy is one of their latest albums and I could reckon it to the new era of Sutcliffe Jugend sound. Since the very first seconds, in the song Insult, it is being heard that this is by no ways typical power electronics album (the discussions about the boundaries of styles etc. goes somewhere else). Appropriate usage of guitars uncovers their sounding abilities in style of power electronics. By that - squeeking harsh sounds and low frequency background and the vocals of Kevin Tomkins to sum it up. Under minimal effects, so that almost every word is being clearly heard, but it is the separate instrument and not just "words". Never ending dialog with himself talking, answering, questioning, shouting, telling... Despite of the fact that the whole musical background is oppressive, the hysteria of vocals leads the listener to such a discomfort that you yourself feel like in a damp cellar, waiting for pigdaddy. The names of the songs - short and concrete - "Insult", "Filth", "Dirty"... And these words consist all the conception and mood of the album. Total dismal and mud, darkness and psychotic hysteria. The design of the album adds to it. It is packed in jewel case and on the front of the cover - perfect example of "bad art" (the painting by Kevin Tomkins). If "bad art" is good description. But power electronics is not a good description also because there are NO good description for this music. One need to listen to it. And also the phrases in the inner side of the cover: ""The disgusting fucked-up filth-bile that is pigdaddy was born of the twisted imagination..." dirt boy dirt girl dirt box dirt hell... Impassable chaos of dirty thoughts.

From Ascension: (by Gianfranco Santoro)

  Passano veloci gli anni ma il progetto di Kevin Tomkins sembra non voler gettare la spugna. Da sempre più grezzo dei cugini Whitehouse, il suono di Sutcliffe Jugend, sebbene goda di un seguito ormai radicato, entusiasta e fedele, nel tempo ha fatto i conti con delle produzioni che, a volte, ne hanno sbiadito il ruolo di precursore. Sicuramente anche i brani, registrati nel 2007, di questo nuovo "Pig Daddy" nascono in circostanze precise, interne di copertina ("the disgusting fucked up...") si può avvertire che anche l'aura di distruttivo nichilismo del gruppo, almeno per questo lavoro, si scontra con la prevedibilità che a volte consiste semplicemente nel rivestire un ruolo, sia esso pure scomondo o disturbante. Non solo, ma quegli assalti power-electronics che dal vivo letteralmente escaltano il pubblico, in "Pig Daddy" sono non di rado troppo esagerati, un po'gratuiti, poco controllati e persino maldestri (leggi: "Buona la prima!"). Quel tipo di industrial music che con Ramlah, Whitehouse, Unkommuniti e gli stessi Sutcliffe Jugend non ci faceva distrogliere l'orecchio da quei suoni fino alla fine di ogni disco, in "Pig Daddy" sembra invece diventare l'esempio pratico della metafora che proprio quei gruppi venti anni fa hanno rappresentato: quella della rock band al contrario, che comunque oggi obbedisce a stili, aspettative e clichès. Restano a darci un bel calcio nelle palle le morbose e lunghe "Defacer" e "Nonce". Non è un brutto album, questo no, i suoi 7/10 se il merita: "Pig Daddy", in pochi minuti, riesce alla grande a mettere KO tutte le ultimate generazioni di piccoli fan del noise che adorano Sutcliffe Jugend grazie al "big brother" myspace. Ma non è questo confronto che ci interessave vedere combattere fino alla morte da Tomkins e soci.

From Elegy: (by Yannick Blay)

  Sutcliffe Jügend est un duo créé en 1982 par Kevin Tomkins, un ancien Whitehouse. Pionniers de la scène Power Electronics, ces deux groupes allient une extrême brutalité au niveau sonore et vocal. Les paroles sont souvent abjectes et ultra transgressives. Le problème est qu'il est difficile de faire la différence entre un album de SJ et un disque de Whitehouse. Mais puisque le groupe de William Bennet semble vouloir arrêter ses activités, il ne restera plue que SJ pour nous en mettre plein la gueule, car Tomkins et son compère Paul Taylor s'y entendent pour nous asséner des coups de boutoir soniques et distordus à l'extrême sur fond de hurlements proches du porc qu'on égorge. Les compositions de Brighter Death Now, à côté, ce sont des ritournelles pour assupir les gamins de Neuilly Sur Seine! Si vous aimez vous faire mal et vous sentir nauséeux ou si vous voulez avoir la haine pour la journée, le terrorisme sonore de ce Pigdaddy est pour vous.

From Darkroom:

  Sutcliffe Jügend è una sorta di istituzione nel mondo power noise. Nato più di vent'anni or sono (nel 1982 per la precisione) da una costola degli Whitehouse (chi non ha mai neppure sentito nominare questo gruppo è decisamente fuori posto in queste pagine), il gruppo di Kevin Tomkins ha sempre trattato tematiche scomode, legate principalmente alla sfera sessuale ed ai numerosi usi e abusi ad essa legati. "Pigdaddy", ennesimo parto del duo inglese, non fa naturalmente eccezione, e a partire dalla copertina (un dipinto che lascia poco all'immaginazione, opera dello stesso Tomkins) ci sbatte in faccia una cinquantina di minuti sporchi e piuttosto perversi. Non suona per niente 'moderno' questo disco, sembra anzi che l'uso della 'tecnologia' funga solo da contorno ad un approccio molto grezzo e 'old-style' alla materia noise. La voce, resa poco comprensibile da un utilizzo pesante e sapiente delle distorsioni, ha sempre ricoperto un ruolo fondamentale nei dischi di Sutcliffe Jügend, ed anche in "Pigdaddy" in più di un'occasione è proprio la voce a sostenere l'impianto strumentale del disco, e non vice-versa come sarebbe lecito attendersi. Le basi strumentali sono semplici (ma non scontate), lineari (ma non troppo prevedibili) e aggressive (ma mai stupidamente caciarone). Ingredienti che, uniti alle atmosfere malsane ed al vago (in alcuni frangenti neppure troppo, a dire il vero) retrogusto di 'trasgressione sessuale', creano un disco difficile da digerire in un colpo solo, ma che si rivela un ascolto piacevole se preso a piccole dosi. Permane qualche dubbio sull'eccessiva semplicità di alcuni brani (la title-track, ad esempio), nei quali il filo conduttore si assottiglia pericolosamente, ma chi si avvicina ad un disco Sutcliffe Jügend sa già cosa aspettarsi, e non si lascerà di certo scoraggiare da qualche sporadico calo di tensione, peraltro inevitabile considerando che i sei brani hanno tutti durate ragguardevoli.

From Deaf Sparrow:

  I am all for destructive noise. I am all for annihilating structures. I am all for aural anarchism. I am all for experimenting, even if that means you may deep fry a few brain cells. I am all for collaborations. I am all for having open door policies. I am all for derangement for art’s sake. I am all for artistic destruction, not destruction of art. I am all for going to the extremes without worrying about the middles. I am all for rude awakening and being pissed off having no reason whatsoever other than you are young and stupid. I am all for distortion and that ringing in your ear forever after the cause has ceased. I am all for power and overpowering those who oppose you. I am all for acting like an idiot if the occasion merits it and you are granted to get some surprised faces. I am all for obscenity as long you damage the target audience. I am all for moral decay because I am aware of it, and believe and know that it all starts at home. I am all for creating ambience because life, as boring as it is, could use plenty of it.

  In fact, I am all for fucking around with your instruments; electronics, keyboards, boxes, mikes, guitars, whatever else and recording it for release purpose. Whether the result shall have any artistic value is another story. And whether the artists intend it to have a purpose is even another story. All I can say is that what we have here in this six-songer is some of the most obtuse experimental/ambience/power/electronics/fucking noise ever put to tape. Plain and simple, this is some dense and strident derangement, where curiously enough the most obsessive instrument is the corrupt voice which never tires up of ranting, screaming and spitting what is surely vile.

  Pretty nightmarish stuff, Pigdaddy is as fucked as it comes. And considering that the duo Sutcliffe Jugend has been around since the early 80’s and this deep in their careers they are still making music with this nulll commercial value, is a good point to admire. The thing is Pigdaddy is so hard to digest and enjoy. I can’t stop thinking that this could have been as hard but also more enjoyable.

From Heathen Harvest: (by Simon Collins)

  Sutcliffe Jugend were important players in the extreme electronic music scene of the early 80s, but a hiatus in recording activity meant that the band were steadily eclipsed by the more prolific Whitehouse, with Sutcliffe Jugend founder Kevin Tomkins doing a stint in Whitehouse between 1982 and 1984. Sporadic Sutcliffe Jugend releases appeared during the 80s and 90s, but the band’s resurrection really gained momentum with the 1997 release on Cold Spring Records of We Spit On Their Graves, a CD compiled from the legendary ten-cassette set of the same title originally released by Come Organisation in 1982. The following two years saw a further two releases, When Pornography Is No Longer Enough and The Victim As Beauty, 2005 saw the first ever Sutcliffe Jugend live performances, and in 2007, the band released This Is The Truth. And so we come to Pigdaddy…

  Before getting into the review proper, I just need to get something off my chest. There should be NO umlaut in Sutcliffe Jugend! It’s not Sutcliffe Jügend. Even the band themselves seem undecided about this – on this release, there’s no umlaut on the cover, but there is one on the spine. There’s no umlaut on the official SJ website, but there is one on the Cold Spring site. The band has two separate pages on the discogs.com website, one with umlaut and one without, with an incomplete discography on each. It’s maddening! But assuming that Sutcliffe Jugend are named after the Hitler-Jugend (Hitler Youth), there’s no umlaut required, except possibly for the purpose of seeming more Germanic and sinister, as in Motörhead. Sorry, but this kind of grammatical inconsistency keeps me awake at night. That’s right, my life really is that devoid of meaning. Pitiful, isn’t it?

  All this, of course, has nothing to do with the album itself, and I'm happy to report that Pigdaddy is a triumph, startlingly original and quite possibly the strongest work yet from this veteran power electronics duo. There have always been several things which serve to distinguish Sutcliffe Jugend from the archetypal power electronics sound, and Pigdaddy gives full rein to these qualities. The first and most obvious difference is the band’s use of electric guitar, and Paul Taylor extracts some extraordinary sounds from his guitar in the course of this album, sounds which have almost nothing to do with the way that guitars are conventionally played and have more in common with avant-garde noise artists like KK Null and Keiji Haino. Sutcliffe Jugend’s other real trump card is Kevin Tomkin’s amazing vocal delivery. With a wide diversity of approaches, ranging from hoarse, suggestive whispers through scabrous croons, raging rants, histrionic wails and deranged babbling which verges on high camp, this is a real virtuouso performance which puts most bog-standard power electronics vocals utterly to shame. Having seen Sutcliffe Jugend play live twice (two reviews of their performance in April supporting Merzbow can be found elsewhere on Heathen Harvest), I can attest to the fact that Tomkins is a brilliant natural performer with a real flair for drama and showmanship, which makes it all the more baffling that the band waited for quarter of a century before venturing into the arena of live performance. Something of this mercurial talent has been captured on Pigdaddy.

  The album opens with ‘Insult’ – an ominous rumble of bass synth, offset against jaggedly squalling strings, and Kevin Tomkins frenziedly haranguing you, gentle listener – “Insult, it’s a fucking insult, accept it!”. Stomping waves of crunchy interference provide a loose rhythmic structure for the surging, barely restrained wall of bass. The following track, ‘Defacer’, is probably the album’s highlight, with fat bass rumbles like ‘Insult’, but this time coalescing into a loose, shambling, burned-out parody of a waltz, with Tomkins drawling and crooning away like Tom Waits with a throat box, and vicious squalls of feedback and searing high-frequency tones setting your teeth on edge. Bizarre as this comparison may sound, ‘Defacer’ actually reminds me of some of the noisiest moments of the Velvet Underground – ‘Sister Ray’, ‘Black Angle’s Death Song’, stuff like that. It’s undeniably harsh and abrasive, but strikingly different from most power electronics.

  The title track ‘Pigdaddy’ is a queasy maelstrom of looped grunts, chopped up static, analogue circuit hum and Kevin Tomkins carrying on an abusive dialogue with himself in several different voices, by turns entreating, commanding, sardonic, bitter, and demented. ‘Dirty’ is a claustrophobic, hypnotic prison of autistic loops and nightmarish sing-song, the playground effusions of a very disturbed child. The closing track ‘Nonce’ is the longest piece on the album, at eleven and a half minutes, and also the nearest thing on here to conventional power electronics, with coruscating blasts of mid-frequency noise, screaming, vituperative vocals and painfully shrill, whistling high tones, but even here Sutcliffe Jugend put a distinctive twist on things, with something that sounds like a dulcimer tinkling away in the background for the first few minutes of the song, and all sorts of strange, fragmented shards of sound later on – a fairground organ, some wailing middle-eastern music, trumpets, quite possibly some female operatic vocals. Maybe I'm making all this up, but I don’t think so, and I don’t suppose Sutcliffe Jugend are telling.

  I sometimes wonder how it is that I can easily turn from listening to and writing about delicate, fragile folk music to something as confrontational and harsh as Pigdaddy. Why do I like both kinds of music? The singer Andrew King, who has a foot in both the industrial music scene and the traditional folk scene, suggested to me once that the common denominator was ‘purity of utterance’ – direct, forceful, uncompromised expression, absolutely unmediated by high-faluting aesthetic theory, the expectations of the listener or the demands of the marketplace. Pigdaddy certainly possesses an impressive level of purity of utterance, in its own ecstatically impure way, and even dedicated extreme music fans will find their assumptions challenged by this highly original album, which is how you can tell that this is really great work.

From Obliveon: (by MK)

  Keine Ahnung, von welcher musikalischen Inkarnation Sutcliffe Jügend getrieben werden, in Sachen Power Electronics und verquerer elektronisch inspirierten Industrials sind die Engländer unbestritten eine Institution, die den Lärm eben nicht zum puren Selbstzweck erhoben hat. Das stellt auch das aktuelle Album „Pigdaddy“ unter Beweis. Wo andere Bands sich ausschliesslich in orgiastischen Lärmorgien verlieren, setzen Sutcliffe Jügend auf die Kraft des Subversiven indem sie mit Dynamikwechseln arbeiten und auch in der Intensität der einzelnen Passagen in Sachen Brutalität oder schleichendem Entsetzen stets wechselnde Akzente setzen. „Pigdaddy“ ist dabei natürlich kein harmonisches Album, kein Werk, das gängigen musikalischen Konventionen entspricht, sondern phasenweise schon weh tut und in Sachen Konsequenz erbarmungslos vom Leder zieht, aber im Gegensatz zu vielen anderen Bands hat man bei den Engländern immer das Gefühl, dass sie nicht nur alles unter Kontrolle haben und sehr wohl wissen, was sie tun, sondern das hier Gebotene auch eins zu eins reproduzieren können. Vor diesem Hintergrund zählen Sutcliffe Jügend ohne Frage zu den intensivsten Acts des Genres, die mit „Pigdaddy“ wieder einmal alles richtig gemacht haben.

From Mentenebre: (by Fernando O Paino)

  Realmente Sutcliffe Jügend realiza una música extrema y aplastante dentro de lo que el género industrial ya es de por sí. Esta vez se presenta “Pigdaddy”, un disco que desde su primer tema ya trasmite una agonía sin parangón que se perpetúa en sus 45 minutos de duración. En él predominan las distorsiones malintencionadas de sintetizadores y otros efectos que destrozan el tímpano del oyente, martilleándolo de forma incesante, provocando la locura, la sinrazón que agota al sabio.

  Lo que más sorprende es que los programas utilizados para la creación de este trabajo destacan por su gran sencillez, sin embargo la psicótica personalidad de su frontman, Kevin Tomkins, hace que esta sencillez se convierta en auténtica agonía. Destacable resulta su segundo corte ‘Defacer’, en el que siguiendo una base elaborada a partir de intermitencias sonoras en pura distorsión, se le añade la voz de Tomkins, que empieza a tornarse y viciarse sobre sí misma, profiriendo gritos que se fusionan con otra serie de efectos chirriantes que van surgiendo progresivamente de la nada y que se concatenan incesantes, conformando un todo que tiende hacia su autodestrucción.

  Otra perlita experimental que destroza la conciencia del más centrado, es su cuarto tema ‘Filth’. Se estructura partiendo de un ultrasonido muy agudo que ya empieza a taladrar los hemisferios temporales del cerebro, cuando la hendedura es considerable, se dejan caer por ella voces descompensadas en forma coral y otro tipo de productos sonoros que consiguen desquiciar hasta al más versado en este campo. Resulta verdaderamente fantástico. Es auténtico sadomasoquismo musical. Y era de esperar, puesto que Sutcliffe Jügend surgió como proyecto paralelo en 1982 de la mítica formación británica de industrial Whitehouse, idea de William Bennett, quien, como ya sabemos, fue una de las primeras personas especialistas en castigar las mentes humanas. Kevin Tomkins estuvo bullendo y rebullendo macabras intenciones acústicas junto a Bennett hasta 1985.
  
  “Pigdaddy” rebosa agonía y locura, su propia portada ya deja entrever este sentimiento, es obra del mismo Kevin Tomkins y consiste en una pintura de un cuerpo humano desnudo con gesto de dolor sobre un fondo azul.

  El estilo de Sutcliffe Jügend se acerca más al power electronic que al noise o el propio industral si lo entendemos de manera ortodoxa. Puede resultar muy interesante para los amantes de bandas como Genocide Organ, Con-dom o Anenzephalia; sin embargo, repito, esto es mucho más intenso que las formaciones que acabo de reseñar, es puramente desquiciante, no apto para gente con deficiencias cardiacas.

  La banda ha trabajado a lo largo de estos 26 años con varios sellos discográficos, desde Come Organisation hasta la Death Factory, con el que Anenzephalia lanzó su selftittle en el año 2001.

  Lo dicho queda, si realmente os sentís preparados para enfrentaros a ruido del bueno, a gritos de enfermos, a la verdadera y auténica antimúsica, no lo dudéis, haceros con este trabajo lo antes posible; sólo puedo decir que al lado de “Pigdaddy” el “Ffwd>Burnout!” de Hypnoskull es como escuchar las cuatro estaciones de Vivaldi.

  Como última curiosidad, destacar que ha salido a la venta hace bien poco un trabajo editado en varios formatos bajo el nombre "The Fall Of Nature" y que se presenta limitado a tan sólo 1000 copias. Nunca se sabe si tras escuchar "Pigdaddy" descubres que Sutcliffe Jügend es el grupo de tu vida!

From DSide: (by Joker)

  Sutcliffe Jugend nasce all'inizio degli anni ottanta, progetto parallelo di Kevin Tomkins, ex membro di una band britannica di Power Electronic Noise: i Whitehouse. Il nome del progetto deriva da Peter Sutcliffe (The Yorkshire Ripper) ossia il famoso Assassino di Yorkshire, un serial killler degli anni 70 che uccise all'incirca tredici donne, per lo piu prostitute, nel Nord Inghilterra prima della sua cattura nel 1981. Questo album è una rimasterizzazione della prima edizione del 1997 che a sua volta raccolse brani dei primi vinili degli anni 80. Oltre a queste gaie informazioni di background, è necessario dire anche che l'album è stato prodotto dalla Cold Spring records. Visti i presupposti, non dovrebbe essere una sorpresa sapere che questo CD contiene tracce zeppe di Noise e urla strazianti. C'è poca diplomazia in questo lavoro: semplicemente la musica sottometterà l'ascoltatore con cacofonici, duri colpi martellanti, fino allo stremo. La voce grida e blatera come una dozzina di lunatici folli in attesa di sangue (con occasionali momenti, probabilmente non intenzionalmente ilari, stile Monty Python). State pur certi che se in questo album fosse stato utilizzato un qualsiasi strumento tradizionale, sarebbe stato maltrattato senza esclusione di colpi e senza pietà. Anche ad orecchio militante..i 45 minuti hanno pochissime variazioni. Se siete seguaci del movimento Power Electro, sopratutto di fasce estreme dove l'essenza è uguale a sofferenza.. allora Pigdaddy è fatto per voi.
-|-|-» Assolutamente sconsigliato ai deboli di cuore.

From Compulsion Online: (by Tony Dickie)

  Pigdaddy marks another return for Sutcliffe Jugend, the veteran electronic noise outfit, involving Kevin Tomkins and Paul Taylor. Kevin Tomkins did a stint with Whitehouse in the eighties and since then there has been sporadic releases from Sutcliffe Jugend. Last year saw the release of This Is the Truth (on Ground Fault Recordings and Hospital Productions) and now we have Pigdaddy.

  Pigdaddy avoids the curt, clipped verbal assaults redolent of power electronics with length lyrics around the topics of power, control, domination. Naturally there's a strong sexual element to it all. It's an approach that allows greater vocal dexterity. Oh yeah, it's abusive and and no doubt abhorent but the variety of treatments the vocal go through obscure Tomkins' lyrics somewhat. He sounds in great form though: teasing, menacing and at time almost playful, especially on the title track. Against a series of throbs, frequency squelches and cut-up distortion, his wayward vocal is constantly hectoring and questioning: '"Who's the daddy? Ask yourself, who is the Pigdaddy?" - throwing in moments of philosophical insight. It's a total dressing down for the listener.

  The vocal delivery on 'Insult' and 'Nonce' may well pick up on the shrill and distorted takes on power electronics though musically - and I'm using the term loosely - 'Insult' pits guitar screechiness against the rumbling noise, while it takes until the final track, 'Nonce' before they really let loose with the shrill frequencies synonymous with power electronics. But even here its the darting and rumbling electronics that really set the tone. Like much of Pigdaddy the themes of sexual depravity are framed in a far more adventurous sort of noise, one that is textured and injected blasts of guitar based feedback. It's no less effective but really the disturbing aspect of Pigdaddy rests with Tomkins' delivery.

  'Defacer' is awash with electro buzz shudders and waves of guitar feedback to Tomkin's verbal assaults. The heavily manipulated vocals of 'Filth' drooled over skittering electronic tones climaxing in a heated chant over short frequency bursts. 'Dirty' comes over with sweeping rhythmic noise, where Tomkins' sing-speak delivery sounds like Tom Waits reared on a diet of Broken Flag releases. You might even catch yourself singing along to the "Dirty, dirty.." lyrics.

  Noise and power electronics in the hands of Wolf Eyes and their ilk may be palatable but leave it to Sutcliffe Jugend to plummet to new depths of depravity. Sutcliffe Jugend will be more than happy in the knowledge that with Pigdaddy they remain the unacceptable face of power electronics. Play it to your Wolf Eyes friends and watch them weep.

From Vital Weekly: (by NM)

  On the press release for Sutcliffe Jügend's latest album on British label Cold Spring the fact is unmistakable. "Pigdaddy" contains some of the most fucked up, histrionic and downright bizarre vocals ever recorded. The man behind the truly sick vocals is brain-man of the pioneering Power Electronics-project Whitehouse. Sutcliffe Jügend is the side-project of Kevin Tomkins (Whitehouse). The cd-debut as Sutcliffe Jügend came on the private label for Whitehouse, Susan Lawly in 1994, but already back in 1982 Sutcliffe Jügend released a 10 cassette box-set on Come Organisation. Once again the power electronics artist makes sure that the listener won't feel comfortable throughout the six stories of depravity - 45 minutes of hell! Conceptually the album focuses on moral decay and sexual transgression. Expressionally Sutcliffe Jügend creates the perfect sonic atmospheres to the theme with filthy vocals of distorted screams and harsh electronics with associations back to both the pioneering electronics of Whitehouse and the early Industrial by Throbbing Gristle. Excellent stuff though don't play this for your granny!

From Judas Kiss: (by Lee Powell)

  It’s been a good ten years or so since Sutcliffe Jugend released the seminal ‘We Spit On Their Graves’ CD on Cold Spring. Compiling a best of, if you will, of tracks from their breathtaking 10-album cassette-only release (and later bootlegged 10-LP set), this CD helped propel SJ to the very forefront of the power electronics scene by introducing their intensely harrowing nightmare of harsh frequencies, analogue noise and screamed, sickeningly perverse and alienating vocals to an eager audience. Since then, Kevin Tomkins has forged away with a variety of other musical projects including the highly revered Bodychoke and the seminal Sutcliffe Jugend album ‘When Pornography Is No Longer Enough’, released on Cold Meat Industry. Ever-industrious and not one to rest on his laurels, he has also produced an ever-increasing catalogue of limited edition releases under an array of pseudonyms, and recently the resurfacing of Sutcliffe Jugend has seen a small trickle of limited vinyl and CDs surfacing before swiftly disappearing into collectors’ paradise and fans’ hell. So now a return to the prolific UK industrial label Cold Spring Records sees the release of potentially the band’s most intense and challenging release to date, the immensely harrowing ‘Pigdaddy’.

  As you’d probably expect from Sutcliffe Jugend, a band who epitomise the power electronics and noise genres, with their almost unpalatable walls of dense noise and frequencies uneasily framing their perverse and twisted lyrical content, ‘Pigdaddy’ is as warped, sick and depraved both musically and lyrically as you could possibly wish for. Wave after wave of sonically nauseating analogue noise, feedback, distorted guitar and screamed, muttered, spoken and manipulated vocals slam into your brain and batter the fuck out of your ears on their way in there. It’s an unrelenting attack on the senses, and a fucking intense listen. With explosions of sounds, harsh analogue frequencies and impenetrable walls of droned noise, awash with an unending barrage of fucked-up vocals delivered with vile, unrelenting accuracy, ‘Pigdaddy’ is a wonderfully horrible listen, immensely challenging yet highly rewarding, if you have the spunk to endure its brutality and sickening subject matter.

  With a deluge of other bands and individuals producing music that’s categorised as power electronics, Sutcliffe Jugend still somehow manages to force its way through the shit and come out smelling like roses (albeit covered in bodily fluids). It’s so easy to imagine ‘Pigdaddy’ being masturbation fodder for the legions of power electronics fanatics. Hankies at the ready and hunched over some dodgy old porno magazine or other, I’m sure this CD will produce the soundtrack for many a five-knuckle shuffle in stinking bedrooms across the land.

  On a personal level, I have to admit this CD is a two-edged sword for me. I’m not the biggest fan of power electronics, yet Sutcliffe Jugend are one of the few bands within that genre that I actually look forward to hearing a new release from. So much so that when I read about this impending release, I was genuinely looking forward to its arrival. And now it’s here, I’m even more impressed with it than I could have imagined. Yet on the other hand, I struggle with this CD. The relentless cacophony of analogue noise and distorted, tortured vocals are an immensely difficult listen. It produces a guttural reaction that is difficult to explain. It puts me in an odd frame of mind. It makes me feel uncomfortable, uneasy and angry. When I listen to it whilst I’m driving, I become overly confrontational, and bitter that I’m exposing myself to this bastard of a release. I want to eject it from my CD player and throw it through the fucking window, but there is something hugely compelling about it which almost forces me to endure the harsh reactions it produces until the heavily built up walls of distorted noise finally collapse. I’m fucked if I can pinpoint why I enjoy this release so much, especially when it physically produces such adverse feelings in me, but isn’t this what power electronics is all about? It pushes the boundaries of taste, and the confines of music as entertainment. And amidst a huge swath of artists churning out wave upon wave of noise and power electronics that just seem to be noise for noise’s sake, it’s brilliant to hear something as well-constructed and presented as ‘Pigdaddy’, and it demonstrates exactly why this group continue to grow with popularity and infamy in equal measure.

  A fucked-up release from a fucked-up band, who are certainly having fun riding the wave of notoriety and infamy this release will bring them, along with a gaggle of new, arse-kissing fans to boot. With more on the way from Sutcliffe Jugend at any time, it certainly looks as if this new lease of life will keep on churning out the goods until the hankies run dry. Who’s the daddy? ‘Pigdaddy’s the fucking daddy!! And then some...

From Gothtronic: (by Remco)

  Those who frequently read my reviews know I usually try to visualize an atmosphere of the music but now, I won’t do that because I probably do not even get close to the sick pictures of the gentlemen of Sutcliffe Jugend and even then reality seems more grim where an Austrian pigdaddy is locking up his daughter in a cellar for 24 years and make her four children. Sutcliffe Jugend is about perversions but I like to mention it in a broader context where people of all nations celebrating the Olympics in a country suppressing the Tibetan people or where pigdaddy Bush is bombing the Middle east into a big parking lot for the trucks looting the oil reserves. This is civilization in decay and this is in my opinion what Sutcliff Jugend is about.

  Sutcliffe Jugend has a long history in power electronics getting back to the early eighties as sub project of notorious noise makers Whitehouse, but soon Sutcliffe Jugend, named after serial killer Peter Sutcliffe, probably even got a bigger cult status. After a hiatus of about ten years Sutcliffe Jugend is back with frontal noise eruptions and nasty feelings.

  Pigdaddy is a frontal confrontation against sanity! Tomkins and Taylor does not create a noise outburst but know how to balance on the sharp edge of control but they absolutely go bezerk with throbbing and pulsing noises and fucked up vocals. The sound is small and claustrophobic like being locked up gasping for breath and a last taste of sanity. Extreme frequencies turning your brain into a useless slab of slow rotting dirt. Subliminal aggression is tearing the flesh of your bones like growing infections of throbbing flesh with gulfs of puss ejected on pulse beat. Slow evolving sickness in broken sounds and filthy drones. Decadence in sickness. Sutcliffe Jugend is taking the ground beneath your feet with abrasive noise textures and words spit out like barking vomit. Pigdaddy bring you harsh noise just very uncomfortable and uneasy.

  High pitched microphone feedback in “Filth” testing the endurance of the noise die hard. Pigdaddy starts fantastically with “Insult”; aggressive noise, scattered guitar sounds and destructive vocals making your goose bums rise of sinister pleasure and my adrenaline rise. As my blood is pumped violently through my veins I fall into another trap of verbal harassment and distorted pulses, slow and hypnotizing. The atmosphere is claustrophobic and oppressive gripping at the nerves holding them tightly and shaking you till you are sick. Title song “Pigdaddy is very disturbing make you wonder about their sanity but is very impressive with throbbing sound textures and sick vocals which sound like in a small box. A loop sweeps you around in “Dirty” and screaming circuits in “Nonge” are making Pigdaddy into a pleasurable record for musical masochists.

  Pigdaddy is an essential release for all fans of power electronics or disturbing sounds; dark, sick and oppressive with no place for fresh air or jolly moments. This is pure and takes your breath away. One of the best records in this genre I heard for a long time. (9.5/10)

From Chain D.L.K.: (by Maurizio Pustianaz)

  It's ten years that Kevin Tomkins is back with his Sutcliffe Jugend project, exactly since he released two CDs on Cold Meat Industry's sub label Death Factory ("When Pornography Is No Longer Enough" and "The Victim As Beauty"). In these ten years they didn't released much, only a live album "Live Assault 01" on 2006 and a studio album titled "This Is The Truth", the last year. It was kinda a surprise to see a new album released on 2008 but for the pleasure of power noise lovers, here it is. PIGDADDY differences itself from the Death Factory stuff for its sound which surprisingly is less electronic than I expected as it is based on deranged guitar sounds coupled by low frequencies synth bass lines and multi layered vocal rantings (only "Dirty" is based only on vocals treatments). The six tracks of the album tend to create a crazy like atmosphere and it's like the deviated approach to sex themes is more evident. If on the old stuff (also on the Whitehouse 80's recordings) was like recorded from the rapist point of view, PIGDADDY seems to be "recorded" connecting a plug into the victim's brain. The sound is more fragmented, disturbed and disturbing.

From Obliveon: (by MK)

  Keine Ahnung, von welcher musikalischen Inkarnation Sutcliffe Jügend getrieben werden, in Sachen Power Electronics und verquerer elektronisch inspirierten Industrials sind die Engländer unbestritten eine Institution, die den Lärm eben nicht zum puren Selbstzweck erhoben hat. Das stellt auch das aktuelle Album „Pigdaddy“ unter Beweis. Wo andere Bands sich ausschliesslich in orgiastischen Lärmorgien verlieren, setzen Sutcliffe Jügend auf die Kraft des Subversiven indem sie mit Dynamikwechseln arbeiten und auch in der Intensität der einzelnen Passagen in Sachen Brutalität oder schleichendem Entsetzen stets wechselnde Akzente setzen. „Pigdaddy“ ist dabei natürlich kein harmonisches Album, kein Werk, das gängigen musikalischen Konventionen entspricht, sondern phasenweise schon weh tut und in Sachen Konsequenz erbarmungslos vom Leder zieht, aber im Gegensatz zu vielen anderen Bands hat man bei den Engländern immer das Gefühl, dass sie nicht nur alles unter Kontrolle haben und sehr wohl wissen, was sie tun, sondern das hier Gebotene auch eins zu eins reproduzieren können. Vor diesem Hintergrund zählen Sutcliffe Jügend ohne Frage zu den intensivsten Acts des Genres, die mit „Pigdaddy“ wieder einmal alles richtig gemacht haben.

From Alternativmusik: (by Marius)

  Ursprünglich als Nebenprojekt zu Whitehouse gestartet, hat Kevin Tomkins nun auch mit seinem Projekt Sutcliffe Jügend so einiges an Alben auf den Markt gebracht. Das neueste, Pigdaddy ist nun beim britischen Label Cold Spring erschienen und zeigt ihn und das Schaffen seines Projekts in Höchstform. Zwar nur sechs Stücke enthaltend, schafft es trotzdem eine Länge von 45 Minuten, die harsche Elektronik und Power Electronics in einen groß gefassten Rahmen von Noise und Industrial einbindet. Verfremdungen, Sequenzer und Verstörung stehen dabei auf der Tagesordnung, harmonischer Hörgenuss ist etwas anderes.

  Allerdings: Würde es Tomkins um den harmonischen Hörgenuss gehen, würde er ja auch andere Musik machen. In den Mittelpunkt seines Albums Pigdaddy stellt er monotone, sich wiederholende Klangschleifen, die aus Sequenzern und Frequenzen verstehen und dabei ein verstörendes Rauschen entwickeln, dazu auch ein paar verfremdete Gitarren. Der Gesang – sofern so nennbar – besteht auf der CD aus disharmonisch geschrienen Botschaften, die sich ideal in das verstörende Gesamtbild einfügen.

  Betrachtet man die Songlängen, so bewegt man sich in etwa im Bereich zwischen fünf und elf Minuten, was die Stücke jeweils noch zu so etwas wie geschlossenen Ganzen macht. Zwar ist – genretypisch – das Songformat dabei weitestgehend über Bord geworfen, dennoch aber erkennt man musikalische Einheiten, die sich deutlich voneinander unterscheiden und erkennen lassen, dass man durchaus Wert auf Abwechslungsreichtum gelegt hat. Mal ist es mehr ein Dröhnen, mal mehr ein Rauschen, gelegentlich auch einfach nur die pure Verstörung, aber Gleichförmigkeit kann man Sutcliffe Jügend sicherlich nicht vorwerfen.

  Was die CD eint: Der beliebte störende Zwischenton. Dieser ist allerdings auf dieser CD Programm, so dass es weitaus überraschender wäre, wenn es auf einmal harmonisch zugehen würde. Diesen Gefallen aber tut die Sutcliffe Jügend ihrem Hörer nicht, stattdessen bleibt es dezidiert disharmonisch, dabei aber durchaus abwechslungs- und einfallsreich. Eine insgesamt durchaus gelungene Veröffentlichung im harschen Elektro- bzw. Industrial-Bereich!

From Musique Machine: (by Roger Batty)

  Pigdaddy stretchers, pulls and bends the Power electronics sound into new & bizarre shapes and forms, With of course a seething brutal/ perverse air to the proceedings but also some surprising humour and quirkiness too.

  Defaced feels like a slowed down waltz played in a rough thumbed manner on loose fuzzed-up guitar strings, with Tomkins vocals ranting and raving, mumbling and showing the odd more tuneful edge too. The title track takes a run-down and belching funk like guitar element and mixers it with grey electronics pushers and buzzers with Tomkins sounding both threatening and almost demented cartoon like on top- for some reason he really brings to my mind 80’s uk cartoon Henrys cat here in places. Dirty with it’s sleazy/comedic rickety bed/sex bouncing electronics groove with Tomkins sounding somewhere between demented carnival barker and psychotic cartoon character. Strangely that’s what Pigdaddy often brings to mind a demented amped up and seedy carnival with Tompkins ushering on one bizarre character after another on to his rickety piss ‘n’ shit stained stage.

  I was expecting Pigdaddy to be standard power electronics but instead I was pleasant surprised to find that though it’s birthed from that scene this is a far more demented and strange beast. With a really ear for creative and seedy sound making and of course full of Tomkins superb unhinged vocals.