Foetus: Gash
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CD 1995 Sony (advance copy) #SRCS 7758 Made in Japan
CD 1995 Sony/Columbia #CK66461 Made in the US
CS 1995 Sony/Columbia (advance copy) #ACC66461 Made in the US
CS 1995 Sony/Columbia #66461 Made in the US
CD 1995 Big Cat #ABB 88 CD Made in the UK
CD 1995 Sony/Columbia #?? Made in Canada
CD 1995 Sony #?? Made in Japan
Track Listing
1. “Mortgage” – 6:19
2. “Mighty Whity” – 3:56
3. “Friend or Foe” – 4:27
4. “Hammer Falls” – 5:34
5. “Downfall” – 2:58
6. “Take It Outside Godboy” – 4:54
7. “Verklemmt” – 4:45
8. “They Are Not So True” – 3:34
9. “Slung” – 11:21
10. “Steal Your Life Away” – 4:42
11. “Mutapump” – 5:33
12. “See Ya Later” – 4:48
The Japanese Sony release contained bonus tracks taken from Null:
* “Be Thankful”
* “Butter”
* “Into the Light”
Linear Notes
Composed, Produced, Arranged and Performed by J.G. Thirlwell
All tracks written by J.G. Thirlwell
Engineered by ROB “ROK” SUTTON
Pre-Production at Self Immolation Studios, Brooklyn
Recorded and Mixed at Unique, NYC
Mastered by Howie Weinberg
With Very Special Guests:
TOD ASHLEY – Bass on tracks 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 11, 12
VINNIE SIGNORELLI – Drums on tracks 5, 9
MARC RIBOT – Guitar on tracks 3, 9, 12
MARCELLUS HALL – Harmonica on track 3
STEVE BERNSTEIN – Trumpet on tracks 2, 5, 6, 11, 12
THE HERESY HORNS on tracks 2, 4, 9
STEVE BERNSTEIN – Trumpt
ART BARRON – Trombone
PABLO CALOGERO – Baritone Sax
FRANK LONDON – Trumpet
The Heresy Horns Arranged by STEVE BERNSTEIN and J.G. THIRLWELL
Tod Ashley appears courtesy of Cop Shoot Cop/Interscope Records
Vinnie Signorelli appears courtesy of Unsane/Matador Records
Marcellus Hall appears courtesy of Railroad Jerk/Matador Records
A&R: David Kahne
Product Manager/Puppet Master: Gerard Babitts
Legal: Loren Chodosh
Sony Video 1: Evelyn Ackley
Long Slow Wet One: DC
(you’re the boss)
An Ectopic Entertainment Production
Self Immolation/Ectopic Ents.
Art Direction: Brian Wallace
Concept & Digital Artwork Designed by J.G. Thirlwell
Photographed by Alex Winter
Computer Imaging: Adam Sanders
Graphic Artist: Richard White
Release Notes
Gash is a Foetus album released in 1995 by Sony/Columbia. Gash is the only Foetus album to appear on a major label and their most widely-distributed, with releases in North America, Europe, and Japan. Gash is Columbia Records #CK 66461.
“Be Thankful”, “Butter” and “Into The Light” appear only on the Japanese versions of Gash, and are taken from the Null release (and for that matter, those three tracks, plus “Friend Or Foe” also appear on the Null/Void release).
“Verklemmt” and “Be Thankful” also appear on the “Verklemmt” / “Be Thankful” 7″, and “Verklemmt” also appears on the Null release, the CMJ New Music Monthly #20 CD and the Various Artists F CD 14 release.
“Steal Your Life Away” also appears on the Ticket Please (Airwalk shoes promo sampler) CD release.
The Alex Winter credited with photography is half of the famed Bill & Ted film duo (though I have no clue which guy he was – Bill or Ted…).
If one (carefully) removes the CD tray, there is a picture of Thirlwell underneath (which he claims was taken when he was thrown out of a strip club in Times Square).
Related Content
Foetus: Verklemmt from JG Thirlwell on Vimeo.
Reviews
Since the early `80s, Jim Thirlwell and his various monikers (including Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel, Clint Ruin and Steroid Maximus) have been pushing the industrial envelope to the breaking point, taking the genre into new, unheard-of and unimagined directions with each successive release. With Gash, he’s outdone himself once again, toying with the textures and rhythms of big band jazz to supplement his artful chaos. While still a faithful master of the shredded vocal and densely layered guitar torrent-conventions established by Foetus long before Ministry or Nine Inch Nails were even a glimmer in the genre’s developing eye-Mr. Thirlwell is also a boundlessly clever experimenter, bringing together seemingly incongruous sounds, instruments and styles into a powerfully cacophonous whole. “Mighty Whity” and “Verklemmt” are more straightforward, visceral Foetus hoe-downs, while “Hammer Falls” uses a sitar, some crashing drum noise and gargantuan tuba squonks to paint its sinister picture. “Slung” and “Steal Your Life Away” are full-blown swinging jazz numbers, complete with muted brass and upright bass. The space in between these two disparate styles is the knowingly dark and frightening zone Foetus creates, shredding musical convention like paper.
CMJ New Music Report, Issue# 424 (24 Apr 1995), by Colin Helms.
“Finally swept into major-label clutches in ‘95, Foetus spewed up Gash, a magnificent chopper of industrial gruesomeness, vintage horn jazz (check the eleven-minute extravaganza “Slung” for snappy music your grandparents would not condone), sly samples and what can only be described as the string-laden lullaby of hell. Presumably working with the first big studio budget of his career, Foetus gets it all in the grooves, lashing together an eclectic collection as advanced and ambitious as anything he’s done.” -Trouser Press