The Foetus of Excellence

Album: Damp
Artist: Foetus
Genre: Industrial/Classical/Swing
Year: 2006
Label: Ectopic Ents

J.G. Thirlwell is one of the most confounding composers in the musical world. Second generation No Waver, Industrial pioneer, Big Band bastardizer, orchestral composer and Film Score maniac, he is all of these things and more. You’ve probably heard of his most prolific and primary project Foetus, or one of its many incarnations: Foetus Interruptus, You’ve Got Foetus On Your Breath, Foetus Under Glass, Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel and, my personal favorite, The Foetus of Excellence, among others. He also records instrumental pieces under the names Steroid Maximus and Manorexia, the first of which was founded in order to make Foetus a more vocal focused project. With a name like Foetus, it would be easy to quickly pigeonhole Thirlwell’s musical output into something dark and foreboding without even hearing it.

Thirlwell may have started out as a No Wave influenced Industrial madman, but he’s grown far outside the confines of his original genre. A man of taste when it comes to music (if not names) Thirlwell began incorporating elements of Swing and Classical into his Industrial assaults, giving us warped and twisted music that would satisfy both black clad counter-culture night timers, and people who just want to do the Charleston. Actually, now I think about it, it probably didn’t satisfy anyone, it probably just pissed everyone off to hear a composer trying to bring such disparate elements of music together. But I think Industrial and Swing are surprisingly workable genres and can be fused into a thing of blacked and scorched beauty. Thirlwell’s music is indeed dark, foreboding and sometimes downright disturbing. But it’s a lot more complicated than that on his recent release, Damp.

Damp is a collection of odds and ends from the recent Foetus years and holds together extremely well as an album, rather than a compilation. Sure it’s got some stuff taken from previous releases, but most of it is pretty new and never been heard anywhere else before. It also focuses more on Thirlwell’s orchestral side than it does on the Industrial, giving us some of the first instrumental Foetus pieces since 1988’s Thaw. The album begins with the bombastically sinister swinger, “I Hate You All” which is probably the most dynamically explosive track on the album cause after this, things slow down significantly. This album shows off Thrilwell’s compositional chops in a way that more Industrial works like Thaw or Rife would fail at. One of the greatest orchestral pieces that Thrilwell has ever composed is the album’s sixteen minute final “Cold Shoulder.” It’s the perfect horror movie piece, all haunting strings and creepy atmosphere. It’s slow and minimal, but it’s also terrifying and sends shivers up your spine. If you listen to this at night, I guarantee nightmares.

This album is also home to Thirlwell’s single collaboration with Sludge Metal kings, the Melvins. The track “Mine Is No Disgrace” originally appeared on the Melvins 2000 album The Crybaby. That doesn’t mean it’s out of place here, it fits right in with the rest of Thirlwell’s dark works. The track was composed with Buzz Osborne of the Melvins, but I don’t know whether Thirlwell wrote any of the music or not. He may have just provided the lyrics. Thirlwell’s lyrics are never about happy things and “Mine Is No Disgrace” is no exception. Murder, abuse, self-loathing, misanthropy… none of these are unusual for Thirlwell. “Mine Is No Disgrace” is largely minimal in its composition, with periodic blasts of thunderous sound. The song was one of the best tracks on The Crybaby and is subsequently one of the best tracks on Damp.

Those hearing Thirlwell’s work for the first time are probably going to think “wow, his band must be killer,” which is true, except it’s not a band, it’s just him. Which is incredible, all things considered. Having to record all of the parts separately and then piece them together yourself has got to be a difficult and time-consuming task. So to hear the finished product be as fantastic as this is nothing short of stunning. The album has its weak moment, in the form of a Phylr remix of “Blessed Evening” from 2005’s Love, but that’s really it in terms of bad material. This album is incredibly strong for being just a collection and is a worthy addition to any Foetus collection. It also might not be a bad place to start if you’re new to Foetus as it introduces some of Thirlwell’s most sophisticated non-Industrial work to date.