Jonny Teardrop: The Beat & The Filth

When Jonny Teardrop moved from his native Paris to Berlin earlier this year, France lost an amazing live performer. This tall, soft-spoken young man is most likely to be found thrashing on the ground like a grand mal tornado, vocal chords blasting out raw, distorted screams that linger in the air like phantoms. He’s no stranger to the dark; formerly of the witch house group ÐOSE, he decided to make a change in his life and embark on a solo career in the land of techno. More interested in concrete basements than massive clubs, he births static-laden tracks that walk the line between the filthy crunch of experimental synthpunk and doom-laden drone metal. Indeed, his recent remix of Sunn O)))‘s ‘It Took The Night To Believe’ is a perfect fit, the brooding guitars given a heavy, hollow 808 clap and looming indecipherable vocals to lurk behind.

Aside from his solo outing, Teardrop…hmm, that looks like the name of some little girls’ pony. And JT reads like the antagonist douchebag in a John Hughes film. So let’s stick to plain ‘Jonny’, whose other project CRAVE is even deadlier, all harsh feedback and distorted wails. It’s a sound that the German capital, for all its artistic conceits, needs more of: the sound of evil experimentation, of true occult punk spirit buried under layers of sonic rage. Jonny has confessed that Berlin is only a temporary home, however; he prefers to live in a place for as long as he has shows there before moving on. But wherever he winds up, we’re bound to hear about it. Something this noisy never stays buried.

Sabbath

Sunn O))) – It Took The Night To Believe (Jonny Teardrop Remix)

Fate (Live)

Published September 29, 2011.