Stream: Jagged Baptist Club, ‘Temptation Death House’

Kevin Bronson on February 15th, 2021

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Jagged Baptist Club, who play at the Happy Sundays festival in Long Beach this weekend (Photo by Joel Hodgson)

If you’re still bearing the powder burns from Jagged Baptist Club’s 2019 album “Reptile Super Show,” you’ll have one question upon hearing their new single: Where’d the guitars go?

“We traded them for black market vaccines,” frontman Blake Stokes replies, which sounds like a joke until you hear the song.

“Temptation Death House” is an ominous step across the threshold of old-school post-punk and EBM from a quartet whose music has resided on the fringes of that (and industrial) since their early days under the name TEST. It’s the title track of JBC’s forthcoming second album, which Stokes describes as “Public Image Limited meets Division of Laura Lee, covering ‘Trompe Le Monde’ while having a nervous breakdown that’s being live-streamed on the internet.”

All right, then. Just the way Stokes tosses off the word “temptation” makes it sound like a sin. In truth, he explains, the song was a “team effort” with bandmates Morgan Ponder, Josh Boyd and CJ Ramsey. “We started a simple drum/bass groove that Josh and I sketched some synths and vocal ideas over,” Stokes says. “Josh then took the groove home and returned with an absolute symphony of synths that really pulled the song into rich sonic territory. We had some versions with our classic noise guitar but ultimately decided it took away from the overall power of the groove. The drums and bass are live, not samples, and I think that blend of live elements and synths gives the song a unique feel. I’m incredibly proud of the finished song, it really shows off where we can go in the future.”

||| Stream: “Temptation Death House”