Customer Reviews

Flow

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is an amazing cd. It has been accurately said that no two songs sound alike, with songs like "Suspect" sounding like a horror movie for the ears and Heuldoch #7B (which initially struck me as the best) which has the sound of big band jazz mixed with the challenging rhythmic and melodic styles of bop, and is even produced to sound as though it were recorded in the fifties. Another thing that strikes me is the fact that, save for a couple solos, Thirwell played all the instruments himself. Quite the virtuoso! The astounding layering is a welcome reminder Mr. Reznor is not the only one that can produce intelligently densely orchestrated pieces. The album is also a return to the lyrical stylings of 80's Foetus that just didn't seem to kick in on the hard to take (although satisfyingly longevetic) Gash.

The album features adjusted cliches like "give me librium or give me meth / i'll filter out the nutrients / and cut the rest to mix your mickey finn," "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger / that must make me hercules," "like a needle in a haystack / provokin' all my allergies," "do unto others - then get out of the area," "wake up and smell the mildew," "there's a last time for every thing," and "i see you when you're sleeping / i know when you're awake / i know when you bin good or bad / so don't repeat the same mistake." There are also new lyrical themes such as aging, and the album seems more personal than any of the earlier Foetus.

The worst songs on the cd, "Quick Fix" and "The Need Machine" are still quite good (some people even think they are the best). Other than those two, I am not able to pick my favorite from among the others. Mandelay stands out, but Heuldoch and Suspect are so catchy, and Kreibabe instills a sense of fear and disgust that I have never felt before in a song (except maybe Asbestos on Thaw). This album is the best so far this year (though I will probably like the new Tool better), and is inspiring to anyone who feels that the industrial/experimental genre has gone to .... (By the way, lyrically this album is certainly not industrial, though musically some songs fit the rubric).

The best Foetus since Nail, and possibly better.

Flow is hands down my favorite Foetus album yet, and here's why:

1) It came from nowhere. Recent Foetus releases have been so uninspiring that I had practically written him off. Flow took me by complete surprise.

2) The lyrics are some of his best ever, e.g. these serious winners from The Need Machine: "whoever has the most toys always wins / they'll genuflect then kick you in the shins / give me librium or give me meth / I'll filter out the nutrients / and cut the rest to mix your Mickey Finn."

3) All of his masterful instrumentalism is at his peak performance. Crazy drumming. Great horn playing. The orchestral samples / performances (I'm not really sure how he gets all those sounds) are magnificent.

4) More jazz influence is always nice, and the hilarious track Heuldock #7b gives us more of that fast crazy death-swing that we want, on top of the scathing lyrical torture of some unfortunate ex (hmmmmmmm... wonder who that could be). Plus the gospel influence in "Grace of God," and the oddball bossa "Cirrhosis of the Heart."

5) The companion album "Blow" with all the remixes is also excellent and makes you appreciate "Flow" even more.

6) While I normally don't like the slow tracks so much (and here the long slow grind of "Mandelay" doesn't suit my palate), the excellent "Someone Who Cares" is a notable exception. Slow and sexy, it makes you want to drink yourself into the gutter with this poor old sod.

Anyway: I see/hear many people repeat the adage that all of Thirlwell's best material is the "old stuff," you know, Ache and Hole and Nail and all that. Those are incredible albums, no doubt, and I love all that stuff. But if I wanted to introduce someone to Foetus for the first time, Flow is the album I would play for them.

Flow rules. Buy it. Now.

This is the best album so far that Jim Thirwell (aka Foetus) has released thusfar, in my opinion. The album holds my attention captive from beginning until the haunting music landscape heard in the last song.
How can I classify this music? It is impossible to do so, it is not metal, not punk, not industrial, not acid Jazz, not a 1940 Big Band gone mad, it's just the creative spirit of Jim, who seems to be getting better and better. He takes you with him on a mad drive through the insane roller coaster of 'The Need Machine', draws you into his own virtual movie where an orchestra paints the story of 'Suspect', he pulls you into his time machine, introducing you to one of the darkest clubs where an insane big band accompanies him to 'Heuldoch 7B', and in the end you find yourself in a the desolate landscape of 'Kreibabe'.
The music is intelligent, challenging, very inspired, it grabs you and will not let go of you until you heard the last whisperings of the last song. Foetus is not some industrial trash band attempting to be intellectual without the necessary equipment to reach that level; foetus is the composer Jim Thirwell, rising to newer, greater heights than before.

GET THIS ONE!

Foetus is so crazy. Shamelessly avant-garde. The first song feels to me like it sounds how he thinks people who buy his albums want to hear in Foetus, to throw them off guard. Guitars & sampled Ministry drumming. The second song is different. It's almost like a 60's or 70's jingle in a Foetusy way. Because Foetus is not the industrial rock band people might think it is. In fact, as far as I know, Jim Thirlwell calls industrial the "I" word. So then the third song is one of the most amazing songs of my life. Thickly layered, textured, heavy percussion for 8 minutes with heart-wrenching vocals, a violin solo, & more. The fourth song is toe-tappin finger-snappin fun jazz, like. The pulsing strings in the fifth song are great. So's the grit. Then there's some tormented, twisted, disaffected, apathetic blues/jazz/swing in the thickly composed strange non-blues/jazz/swing way only Foetus could pull off like this. & the last two songs are very noisy, thick with guitars, (one of the songs with a bossa nova beat!) until the last few minutes of the last one are weird spacey electronics & a lullaby. This cd is a wonderful evolution of Foetus. & I he made it as a 2-cd project with Blow. They're cd's you buy separately, but I think it's important to hear the remixes on Blow next to Flow.

This simply is one of those CDs that you must have listened to. When I heard the first two tracks I was still not very enthusiastic about the music, but as the CD progressed the music got better and better.
Some might call it 'Industrial' or 'Alternative', but it really is just Thirwell, aka Foetus. Don't try to categorise it, just listen and enjoy. Listen to the typical Thirwell reincarnation of 'cool jazz' in 'Heuldoch 78', enjoy the manic 'Need machine', or be swept into the sound picture of 'Suspect', you can tell that here is a guy at work who has something meaningfull to tell, not just a bag of wind looking for a quick fix for his ego. So, do yourself a favor and buy this one, you'll never regret it.

What can I say, really that anyone that would be reading this doesnt already know.... Jim Thirlwell is a genius! He underated & underpaid unfortunately... considering his creativity & talent... this guy should be mainstream, because he's so ...cool! But I guess fortunately for the music snobs out there that like to keep Thirlwell sacred... he's still our King Kool ...!

I hope who's reading this who hasn't bought it just snatches this thing up promptly, you don't know what you are missing.

We just picked up the latest CD from Mr. J G Thirlwell... Very different, just like everyone of his CD's... There are no two CD's alike... Fun, inteligent, and inspirational.... No doubt that "Flow" will be in the CD changer for quite sometime... Anyway, anyone who isn't a fan should check this out, anyone who is will probably have done so...

I like it. However, I don't like it quite as much as some of the other reviewers and here's why.

After hearing about this CD and the glowing reviews it got in some local rags, my expectations were pretty high. Finally, something to sink my teeth into. Not some generic mush like the Foetus Inc productions or that one Foetus release produced by SONY. And finally that's what we've got. This CD rocks, but it doesn't rock quite as successfully as Nail or Hole or some of the Wiseblood stuff.

Actually, the Scraping Foetus off the Wheel albums (Hole and especially Nail) were so good that to put another album out in their league would be next to impossible. Both were loose concept albums, which Flow is not. What makes them better than Flow? A couple of things mainly; the first of which is so simple it might sound stupid.

Clint's vocals on those two earlier works were sung mainly in his baratone voice. And the stuff sung in higher octaves didn't contain that nasally twang he developed sometime between then and now. I'd have liked alot of the tracks on Flow better if they were sung an octave lower. His lower register is just better, clearer and more menacing. I prefer the second half of Flow to the first, especially 'Suspect' because of this.

And secondly, the trademark Foetus/Wiseblood slow tempo beginning which gradually and un-nervingly speeds up to a fever pitch pace towards the middle is conspicuously absent on Flow. I always liked that. Kinda caught the listener by surprise. Why is there none of that in the tracks on Flow? Don't know.

Anyway. Great album. But it could have been greater.

FD

I already reviewd this cd, but after reading the review contempt_for_me wrote, I had to write another review in response. Foetus is not a rock band. The first song, Quick Fix, sounds like something a Ministry or NIN fan would like, but Foetus is neuther Ministry nor NIN, & it's not going to be, so don't expect it. Besides, it's not fair to write a review for a cd by a band you're not too crazy about in the first place. That's not fair to do. I could write a review for the Fragile, & give it 2 stars, & complain about how disappointing it is that all Trent can think of to do is loud guitars, but I'm not going to. Listening to this cd more (after one more day of having it), it just gets more & more impressive. Nobody else puts this much variety of music on one album. Oh, one last thing, please don't call Foetus "industrial" either, people. He's not "industrial" & he's not trying to be. He's Foetus, an experimentor.

Thirlwell never ceases to entertain, each album is a rebirth. Even his lesser-inspired-sounding songs are better than the other (bad industrial) bands with whom he's always wrongly associated. My personal favorites are the swing/jazz songs "Grace of God" and "Heuldoch 7B". Foetus is dead - long live Foetus!