With a quick, cursory listen to this disc, it is not hard to see why these tracks didn't make it onto any other Jesu release. Not due to a lack of quality or anything like that, they just would not have clearly stuck out as too "different" among the others that have been released. With that in mind, we are presented eight tracks that are among the most experimental Justin Broadrick has released, but like almost everything else he has a hand in, are pure gold.
 
Among the four vocal tracks (the remaining for are instrumentals), one of the most notable differences is in the drum tracks.Where most of Jesu's body of work has stuck to rudimentary rock rhythms, the tracks here are more apt to drift into electronica and IDM rhythms rather than conventional sounds."Can I Go Now" has a beat that wouldn't be out of place in a club, if it were not matched with the melody of a decaying music box and some bass heavy riffing.It's akin to some of Jesu's gentler work with a less distortion based take on Techno Animal.Interestingly, Broadrick gives some of his most melodic vocals to date around this track, even if they are heavily effected and processed."The Playgrounds are Empty" is perhaps the most conventional of the tracks, other than the skittering electronic rhythms and odd vocal filtering, it is all bass heavy riffs and more gentle treated guitar notes.As a whole, the vocal tracks are more electronic in nature, sort of like the Jesu portion of the Eluvium split that came out earlier this year, but are more compelling.
The instrumentals are a bit more in line with the conventional Jesu tracks that have been on the multitude of albums and EPs, with a greater emphasis on the guitar riffs and rock rhythms, just a greater amount of electronic tweaking and effects, like the cut up vocal loop of "Don't Dream It," which is lots of heavy riffs yet fragmented and mixed with a twinkling piano melody."Tiny Universes" is among the most idiosyncratic, with a rhythm that could have been lifted from the forgotten Sidewinder project of Broadrick with soft ambient synths.The instrumentals do have that "sketches" feeling about them, that they are experiments that just were not fully fleshed out, but even in this stripped down context are still fascinating.
There is the definite potential for Pale Sketches to be the "lost" Jesu work of this year.Considering the level of productivity this year (Conqueror, Sun Down/Sun Rise, the Eluvium split, and Lifeline), this one hasn't received a massive amount of attention.Perhaps it is due the fact it is a limited edition of 2000 being sold directly by Broadrick (by the way, this is a totally solo endeavor, from all of the tracks to the graphic design), but I figure that's probably intentional.This record screams "for the fans": those of us who have been around since the Heart Ache EP, and most of us back far into Godflesh's heyday.So for the fans, here's a chance to hear some experimentation that never feels self-indulgent or wasted.
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