Re: Foetus

[jdrukman%dlsun87@us.oracle.com (Jon Drukman)]

David Koehler asks:
>>Oh, btw, I also picked up an album by Foetus: Male. So, you can see by my
>>musical tastes (not to mention my philosophical tastes) that I'm not your
>>normal consumer. And since she was targeting YourNormalConsumer(TM), I was
>>guaranteed to not like it as well as _The Walking_.

>Yay!  How do you like it?  I just got "Hole", since I've enjoyed "Nail" so
>much, and it's every bit as good as "Nail".  I heard "Male" was much more
>metallic.  Is this true?  It's the live one, isn't it?
>You'd be surprised how many Katefans like industrial type music...

since reading this thread yesterday i put "male" in my CD bag for work
today.  and by an astounding coincidence, i'm listening to it right
now.  i think it's a pretty weak effort, actually.  i like foetus for
his richly layered symphonic approach to aggressive music, and this
sounds like a better-than-average metal band in a club, which is
basically what it is.

i had to get it, because i'm a foetus completist (say that 10 times
fast).  it only has 2 tracks that never appeared anywhere else: puppet
dude (sort of a weird variation on "rocket man") and behemoth (cover
of a tad song).  the version of faith healer (cover of sensational
alex harvey band song) isn't anywhere near as good as the version on
the semi-official bootleg "rife."  if you have "rife" you can safely
skip this, i guess.

Here's my capsule review of all Foetus product:

Deaf - very primitive new wave music.  kinda silly.
Ache - same as Deaf.

Hole - he moves to a real studio and the music improves greatly.  nice
mix of sheer aggression and more playful stuff ("satan place" is my fave!)

Nail - an absolute masterpiece of symphonic aggression.

Thaw - more industrial, more distortion - really really good.  not
quite up to the genius level of Nail, but how could it be?  if Nail is
Thirlwell's "The Dreaming" then this is his "Hounds Of Love."

Sink - *essential* compilation of singles/b-sides/etc.  uneven, of
course, due to its nature, but absolutely required listening.  good
value for $ too (80 mins on 1 CD).

Rife - semi official live bootleg, pretty good.

Male - official live double CD, OK but getting more into the
grunge/rock side of things.

Don't ignore his side projects either!  Wiseblood is excellent stuff
that might as well be under the Foetus name but isn't.  Steroid
Maximus is all instrumental and really excellent.  The Clint
Ruin/Lydia Lunch EPs are both excellent, although I prefer "Don't Fear
The Reaper" to "Stinkfist".

--
Jon Drukman                                      jdrukman%dlsun87@us.oracle.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Always note the sequencer - this will never let us down.