3 out of 5

Label: Southern Lord

Produced by: Various

A worthwhile repository of some extra thoughts on ‘The Cliff,’ which – to me – was something of a bridging track on Forever Becoming between more impactful tunes; spotlighting it on this EP shows how that base can be pushed or pulled for different effects.

The Allen Epley vocaled version rather becomes the ideal take, as its glittery, slowcrawl, open-ended guitar style is befitting of Shiner / Life and Times, and thus Epley’s emotive, yearning singing. While I can’t say the track necessarily is affecting lyrically, the extra layer Allen brings definitely gives the tune more weight. Still, I’m glad this wasn’t dropped in the middle of Becoming with vocals, as I think that would’ve just been disruptive.

As much as this version sounds like a Shiner tune, Justin Broadrick’s muted, echoey “remix” sounds like a Jesu tune, which will be a plus or minus (or maybe a nothingburger) depending on your feelings for Jesu. Me: I respect Godflesh immensely, and appreciate what Broadrick has accomplished with Jesu, but that outlet of his has never been my bag – I fall in the nothingburger territory. This is on par with the album version.

On the B-side, another remix from Isis-ers Aaron Harris and Bryant Clifford Meyers turns the track back into a Pelican song, like maybe something from Fire in Our Throats. It doesn’t have the heavy guitars from that era, but it’s a bit quicker-footed than Becoming’s slow stomp, and the duo give it some energy in the percussion, with some additional atmosphere mushed in. It’s a pretty great way of granting the track a totally different feel, whereas the other remixes are more like sidesteps to the original.

Then we have The Wait, which is very much the definition of a B-side: this was produced / recorded later than the Forever stuff, it seems, but it’s of a very similar template to The Cliff, to the extent that you could see it as an earlier / alternate version. It’s slow, open-ended, pleasant, but somewhat forgettable.