Release year: 2024
Label: Zoharum

Sutcliffe No More? Time to get with the program if you still haven’t heard: seminal UK power electronics outfit Sutcliffe Jugend called it a day in 2019, and after a short stint as Slaves No More, the continuation or spiritual successor (call it what you will) has been known as Sutcliffe No More. Not exactly subtle – the name certainly says what it’s all about – but why not? It’s not like this offshoot is miles apart from Sutcliffe Jugend.

And they’ve wasted no time, either. Cute is already the fifth album under the new name, and the second in 2024. Strike while the iron is hot, or something to that effect?

Cute roots itself in pretty familiar soil from the onset. Opening track Salt is some of the most vicious, venomous, hostile and oppressive music I’ve heard in a long time. And it’s got very little to do with the harshness of the music – the rather minimalistic droning synth is not harsh or abrasive at all – but the vocals. It’s the very familiar themes of sexual abuse, depravity and general nastiness, delivered in the most nihilistic matter-of-factly tone that are to thank.

This is the kind of music that makes you feel dirty.

Cute doesn’t necessarily splay the proverbial disfigured corpses up on display under equally proverbial spotlights. At least not all of the time. I wouldn’t call it subtlety, but a lot of the time the nastiness is not very in-your-face, but it’s always undeniable. On the other hand, aforementioned Salt certainly doesn’t censor itself.

On the whole, I suppose it’s easiest to class Cute as power electronics. However, at least in terms of how the genre is typically understood these days, Cute certainly transgresses all boundaries. There are tracks that could be classed as dark ambient or death industrial or whatever. Obliterating harshness and crushing abrasiveness aren’t the only orders of the day.

Of course, the same went for Sutcliffe Jugend, so this shouldn’t be surprising. An album like Blue Rabbit (2012) was essentially entirely devoid of any musical elements that could classed as harsh, abrasive or violent. Compared to that album, for example, Cute is a whole lot more in-your-face musically as well, assaulting the listener with viciously grinding, distorted synths and other harsher elements. But it’s atmosphere before violence for the most part.

And the end result? Well, it’ll leave you feeling dirty. And at the same time, there’s something incredibly enticing about Cute. It’s not the kind of album one enjoys listening to, at least not if adhering to any conventional definition of “enjoy”, but it’s the kind of album one will listen to, repeatedly.

As with other good – or should I rather use a word like effective or potent? – nasty power electronics, Cute is a bit like staring into that famous Nietzchean abyss and have it stare back at you, at least in one possible interpretation of it. Cute forces the listener to confront some very repulsive and depraved lyrical content and atmospheres, and music fitting to it – and most likely, force the listener to realize there’s some part within resonating with and responding to it. And that’s why Cute gets under your skin.

Cute is an album you may well have conflicted opinions on. It’s potency, however, cannot be denied.

Sutcliffe No More don’t seem to have an online presence