I’ve said it before in numerous reviews and blogs that while the term ‘genius’ has been so chronically overused and misapplied in recent years that it’s become almost meaningless, but in terms of the dictionary definition of the term, if one man can be rightly considered a musical genius, it’s Jim Thirlwell, the quietly spoken, vaguely twisted lunatic who is Foetus. Over the past thirty years, he has remained a singular figure carving an unparalleled career several million miles ahead of the cutting edge. As a major influence on the likes of Nine Inch Nails and countless bands who consider themselves either ‘industrial’ or ‘genre-defying,’ Thirlwell was doing it before Reznor even conceived a career in music.
What sets Thirlwell apart from essentially anyone else is the extreme eclecticism of his output, often packing more ideas and styles into a single song than many bands manage in an entire career. While perhaps most renowned for melding big brass and orchestral extravagance to pulverisingly loud guitars and a lyrical lexicon that’s pun-heavy and postmodern, there are many tracks lurking in the farther recesses of the Foetus back-catalogue that amply demonstrate that Thirlwell’s abilities are both compositional and technical. He was testing out all sorts of studio trickery long before the digital age, and was one of the first to really push the idea of sampling and looping as a method of creating music without the need for (m)any musicians with instruments.
Over a string of 12” EPs released in the early 80s, released under manifold variations on the Foetus theme, Thirlwell carved a unique niche, with quirky, catchy A-sides often backed with the most innovative and experimental of his works stowed away on B-sides, or remaining unreleased. Until now.
A couple of the tracks on ‘Limb’ can be found (if you can hunt them down) on those early records – ‘Sick Minutes,’ recorded in 1982, first appeared in 1984 on the ‘Finely Honed Machine’ 12” by Foetus Uber Frisco, while the full version of ‘TO 45’ (here only present in excerpted form) originated from the Foetus Over Frisco 12” ‘Custom Built for Capitalism’ (1982). The remainder have remained in the vault all these years.
So while ‘Limb’ might not be a cheap package, it’s absolutely worth the money, consisting as it does of a 12 track CD (which includes an additional MP3 track, the 20-minute ‘You Have to Obey’), and a DVD containing the documentary ‘NYC Foetus’ which includes interviews with major forces on the NY alternative scene, the likes of Michael Gira et al in addition to previously unavailable live footage from a range of Foetus eras and offshoot projects is rather exciting. The 48-page booklet’s sheer quality too, as JGT's liner notes are interesting, and accompanied by a huge quantity of minimalist black/red/white artwork – a longstanding Foetus motif – again produced by the man himself. Really, his talents are endless.
‘Sick Minutes’ (originally intended to be six minutes in duration, but clocking in at eight and a half) opens with an undulating, rolling keyboard before percussion created using all manner of improvised objects enter the mix, and from there, further layers are added as the whole piece snakes its way through a musical landscape of unexpected sounds and directions.
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Improvisations like ‘Ezekiel’s Wheels’ and ‘The Caterpillar Kid’ and studio mash-ups such as ‘Industrial Go-slow’ are more ambient in nature, with rumblings and scrapings and occasional inexplicable bursts of noise creating dark atmospheres, but these are contrasted with more lighthearted, percussion-based pieces like ‘Te Deum’ which features what sounds like chopstick and glockeshpiel but are in fact prepared and toy pianos. Nothing is ever straightforward, however: complex time signatures placed in juxtapostion with one another create some most disorientating effects.
Samples abound, and while snippets from films are commonplace now, this was positively revolutionary at the time. Similarly, looping is a well-established method now, and is a lot easier with the advent of digital technology. Thirlwell was looping tapes way back, and again, uses the method to various interesting effects, not least of all in terms of mismatches and irregular time signatures. ‘The Anxious Figure’ a piece constructed from classical records using loops and scratches and a finger poised over the pause button on the tape deck is as mind-bending as it is innovative.
One thing that is apparent is that in Thirlwell’s hands, experimental doesn’t have to equate to unlistenable, and while there are sections that are likely to induce a headache – usually through rapid-fire repetition of single phrases (‘That We Forbid’ is a endless loop with some added phase effect) and such a large number of things going on at once – much of ‘Limb’ is tranquil and leans toward classical as much as it does electronica or so-called ‘industrial.’
What’s perhaps most remarkable is the fact that the music still sounds really current even now. Despite many bedroom DJs having succeeded in becoming masters of studio wizardry, and many having subsequently attempted to emulate Thirlwell’s output, that he has no single model or style and possesses such vast vision combined with innovative skill means he remains a true one-off. ‘Limb’ is not only further proof of this, but essential listening for all fans of experimental music.
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