Bodychoke was an experimental noise rock side-project of Power Electronics band Sutcliffe Jügend

Sutcliffe Jügend

Sutcliffe Jügend is a power electronics band, which began in early 1982 as a sub-project of Kevin Tomkins' main band, Whitehouse, and instantly gained notoriety as one of the harshest groups of the original power electronics scene.-Biography:...

 active between 1993 and 1999. The band released 4 albums, most notably their debut 'Mindshaft' (Freek Records) produced by British psychedelic dub legend Ott

Ott

Ott is a record producer and musician who has worked with Sinéad O'Connor, Embrace, The Orb, and Brian Eno, and has achieved recognition since 2002 for his own psychedelic dub tracks and his collaborations with Simon Posford...

 and 'Five Prostitutes" which was produced by Steve Albini

Steve Albini

Steven Frank Albini is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, audio engineer and music journalist. He was a member of Big Black, Rapeman, and Flour, and is currently a member of Shellac...

. Their music expressed themes of hate and disgust, as well as some of the sexual perversion and death tackled by Sutcliffe Jügend

Sutcliffe Jügend

Sutcliffe Jügend is a power electronics band, which began in early 1982 as a sub-project of Kevin Tomkins' main band, Whitehouse, and instantly gained notoriety as one of the harshest groups of the original power electronics scene.-Biography:...

.

The band's style is hard to categorise, a combination of noise rock

Noise rock

Noise rock describes a style of post-punk rock music that became prominent in the 1980s. Noise rock makes use of the traditional instrumentation and iconography of rock, but incorporates atonality and especially dissonance, and also frequently discards usual songwriting conventions.-Style:Noise...

, post-rock

Post-rock

Post-rock is a subgenre of rock music characterized by the influence and use of instruments commonly associated with rock, but using rhythms and "guitars as facilitators of timbre and textures" not traditionally found in rock...

, industrial music

Industrial music

Industrial music is a style of experimental music that draws on transgressive and provocative themes. The term was coined in the mid-1970s with the founding of Industrial Records by the band Throbbing Gristle, and the creation of the slogan "industrial music for industrial people". In general, the...

 and even gothic rock

Gothic rock

Gothic rock is a musical subgenre of post-punk and alternative rock that formed during the late 1970s. Gothic rock bands grew from the strong ties they had to the English punk rock and emerging post-punk scenes...

 elements. A typical Bodychoke song is driven along by a strong repetitive riff on the bass and drums, tensioned against layers of distorted guitar noise, with vocals ranging from bassy murmurs to deranged screaming. From 1996, cello featured as both a melodic and rhythmic element, and sometimes as a source of ambient sound-effects. The arrival of Manu Ros in 1998 brought a more complex, ′tribal' feel to the drumming.

Members

• Kevin Tomkins – vocals, guitar
• Paul Taylor – vocals, guitar
• Gary Kean - bass guitar
• Mike Alexander - 'cello
• Manu Ros - drums (1998–1999)
• Jamie Hitchens - drums (1993–1998)

Studio albums

• Mindshaft (1994), Freek Records
• Five Prostitutes (1996), Freek Records
• Cold River Songs (1998), Purity
• Completion (2004), 2nd Floor Mafia Productions
• Cold River Songs (remastered featuring bonus material) (2009), Relapse Records
  Relapse Records
  Relapse Records is an independent record label based in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania. It was founded by Matthew F. Jacobson in 1990.-History:The label was started by Matthew F. Jacobson in August, 1990 in his parents' basement in Aurora, Colorado...