Towards the Within — Succulence by Foetus

J.G. Thirlwell, also known as Clint Ruin, Frank Want, and Foetus (multiple variants of the name), among other pseudonyms is an Aussie musician that has been putting out albums of an experimental nature since the early 80s.

I’ve listened to his music since then when a classmate was selling cutout records for 99c each during a Spanish class in high school. His father worked at one of the local record distribution offices and told his son that if he could offload these records, he could keep the cash. I also picked up a few albums by bands I did follow that day (Echo and the Bunnymen, Hüsker Dü, etc.). Most of them replaced LP dubs I had on cassette from other folks who listened to the same kind of music, or were purchased to flesh out my collection.

One album I bought on artist name recognition alone. I had absolutely no clue what I was going to hear when I listened to the album “NAIL” by a band named Scraping Foetus Off the Wheel (shortened to “Foetus” to cover all of the name variants). I think I imagined some kind of experimental noise/feedback concept album. That’s not at all what I received.

In the early 80s, the aggro-industrial sound was still in its infancy. Bands like Nine Inch Nails were still a decade away, The Ministry was still experimenting with a saccharine New Wave that was leaning minimalist, and Big Black was about the only band that was doing aggro-punk driven by minimalist production and a drum machine. Modern Industrial had yet to be born.

Foetus was something like I had never experienced before. It wasn’t nearly as experimental as I originally imagined, nor was it melodic or constructed in the way I was accustomed to hearing music. Junkyard percussion mixed with synth strings, synth horns, buzzsaw guitars, multiple tempo changes, alternate time signatures, singing that flipped between a decent baritone to something more guttural… From the song “Throne of Agony” to the final track “Anything!”, it was an assault on all of the senses.

It was only much later that J.G. was recognized as one of the founding fathers of what became known as industrial music. And so much industrial out there still fails to reach the complexity of his compositions, preferring to error on the side of music suitable for the discotheque than to get truly experimental.

So it was a great stumble to discover Succulence the other day, a new song from Foetus done in the vein of 90s dance industrial. This is essentially a throwback sound to remind people what was popular back then heyday of the Industrial sound. It’s not nearly as experimental as the songs that you would find on “NAIL” (or other albums of the time period from Foetus), but it shows that J.G. still knows how to really craft that style of song (listen to a slightly older track, Here Comes the Rain for something more on the experimental side). This piece is almost airplay-ready, although the band’s name will likely put off any DJ who might otherwise play the song. That said, it might be too aggo-industrial for those of you more used to what you do hear on the radio.

Going back to the theme of this post series, however, music that influences my tastes, this caught my attention as being a prime example of the kind of modern music that makes me sit up. The songs has a tension to it that builds and abruptly resolves. It is an expertly crafted sonic experiences, even if it is not a sound that might be for everyone.