The Automatik

If we are to believe the dictum that there is no rest for the wicked, I suppose it’s fitting that JG Thirlwell, a.k.a. Foetus, is one of the most industrious forces in the universe.

In addition to scoring the music for The Venture Bros., his various commissioned performances, audio installations, DJ gigs, and alter egos/side projects, he’s managed to release yet another album as Foetus.

Damp is the perfect musical antipasto for those not yet initiated into Thirlwell’s cult of personality. It’s an eclectic exhibit of the excellence of Foetus for the new millennium.

“Antabuse” and “Cold Shoulder” are brand-new tracks and illustrate how the instrumental atmospheres that Foetus constructs are often as seductive as his vocal compositions. The spooky “Blessed Evening” is a remix of a tune from 2005′s brilliant Love album. There are also fresh editions of “Into the Light” and “Not In Your Hands,” the latter of which transports my imagination to an alternate universe in which Thirlwell composes the theme to a new Bond movie.

“I Hate You All” is a hilarious near-parody of what many would consider the “classic” Foetus sound, all screaming horns and snarling misanthropy, while the sexy stream-of-consciousness of “Hemo the Cuckold” provides at least two of the multiple David Bowie references found throughout the album (I’ll let you discover the others). Those of us who fell in love with “Sieve” on the Flow tour are quite thankful that it’s finally made its way onto a proper release.

Although those less familiar with his oeuvre often mistakenly refer to Foetus as a “they” he does play well with others, as proven by “Paging Dr. Strong” (with Rotoskop) and his reinvention of “Shrunken Man” by The The.

My favourite of these collaborative efforts, however, is “Mine Is No Disgrace,” which I heard when it was originally released on the Melvins’ fine album The Crybaby in 2000. Just coming down from the high of the recently re-released Foetus back catalogue, I wasn’t quite ready for it though it has definitely improved with time.

Although older releases like Thaw and Wiseblood’s Dirtdish are more brutally masculine, I don’t think Thirlwell has ever sounded more raw than he does on this song. His trademark growl sinks to its most primal and naked, both vocally and lyrically.

Perhaps nothing is more mind-blowing than “Chimera,” which having listened to Foetus for more than half of my life seems to be the most radical thing he’s ever done, and not in the ways that one would expect.

In the teaser trailers for the upcoming Foetus documentary, long-time Thirlwell friend and collaborator Lydia Lunch cautions that those who would assume that Thirlwell the creator and Thirlwell the person are the same would be wrong. But with lines about “needing human contact” one has to wonder if he’s finally let a bit of his “backwards mask” slip. Or maybe that’s just what he wants us to think.