JG Thirlwell

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The new album from Manorexia. The album is 50 minutes long and contains eight tracks, radically rearranged from the first two Manorexia albums and performed by the chamber ensemble version of Manorexia in the arrangements that JG has been performing and perfecting over the last couple of years. From the sleevenotes:

“Manorexia was conceived in the year 2000. I began working on the first album on Thanksgiving morning and released it in 2001. It was started as an electronic and sample based project where I wanted to explore a spatial quality not existent in my other work. I released two albums as Manorexia, “Volvox Turbo” and “The Radiolarian Ooze”, both on my label Ectopic Ents and exclusively thru my website foetus.org.

I had wanted to rearrange some Manorexia compositions for string quartet with percussion for some time, and proposed this to David Sefton at UCLA back in 2002, but in course of those discussions we switched to my Steroid Maximus big band.

Eventually I made the first live performance as Manorexia in Russia in 2006. Kenny Savelson at Bang On A Can proposed my going there for a performance at the same time as the Real Quiet trio of David Cossin, Felix Fan and Andy Russo. Real Quiet agreed to be the core of Manorexia for the Russian dates and we augmented the lineup with two violinists and a violist in Moscow. I rearranged some of the Manorexia material to be played by string quartet, piano, percussion and laptop with Ted Hearne.I have since formed separate Manorexia ensembles in NYC and London. Manorexia has played at All Tomorrow’s Parties, The Whitney Museum, Bang On A Can marathon, Brainwaves Festival and several times at The Stone NYC. This album is the product of the first wave of chamber arrangements of Manorexia material.”-JG Thirlwell

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! CD Currently out of Stock ! Available on vinyl here

The long-awaited score from the hit Adult Swim cartoon The Venture Bros, composed and performed by JG Thirlwell.

“JG Thirlwell’s brilliant music for The Venture Brothers injects new energy to the world of cartoon soundtracks.  An extension of his work with Steroid Maximus, the music is filled with honesty, imagination and excitement.  Like all great soundtrack composers, JGT is a compendium of music history and he jumps easily from one genre to another with flamboyant style – mambo, drum ‘n’ bass, electronica, 20th century classical, lounge, calliope carousel, big band jazz – nothing seems to escape his unerring ear, but no matter where he goes, he always remains uniquely himself.  …This is great music.” John Zorn, NYC 2008 (from the sleeve notes)

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LIMB is an archival release of experimental and minimalist compositions recorded from 1980-1983, from the early days of Foetus and pre-Foetus. Though the material is largely unreleased, some of the pieces have been previously released on the compilation albums by Coil and United Dairies. Some were excavated and some of it was reconstructed or re-edited from compositions on cassette. One piece is constructed from an organ part written in 1982, which JG took the liberty of finishing in 2008. These pieces were made before the introduction of MIDI and sampling technology. It shows the lineage and genesis of some of the methods that JG is working in today.

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To regard VEIN as purely a remix album is to underestimate its intentions and ambitions. VEIN has material from 2005’s LOVE fractured and re-imagined by some of today’s most notable artists. It is an immersive, powerful and sometimes harrowing cinematic journey through sound and emotion. Includes contributions by Fennesz, Mike Patton, Jay Wasco, TujikoNuriko, Jason Forrest, TRZTN (of Services), Tweaker, Matmos, TomRecchion and J.G.  Thirlwell.

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Ectopic Ents has released DAMP, a  Foetus  “satellite appendix” album, exclusively thru the Shop on this website. The music consists mainly of unreleased material as well as some rare material. The DAMP cover is a ten panel foldout with lyrics, featuring photos and design by JG Thirlwell.

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LOVE is a sweeping dramatic epic drenched in harpsichord and orchestras withjarring left turns, bombast and seduction. It features duet with Jennifer Charles of Elysian Fields and an appearance by the amazing Pamelia Kurstin, the world’s foremost thereminist!

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Steroid Maximus is the instrumental guise of the inscrutable J.G.Thirlwell (aka FOETUS).
This highly acclaimed long awaited album contains the cinematic stylings of JGT encompassing twisted neo-blaxploitation, spy/crime noir-intrigue, haunting soundscapes, sinuous carnal funk, exotic soundtracks of the unimagined and ethnic music from civilisations yet to be invented!

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Sometimes darkly disorienting, sometimes rhythmic and occasionally almost treading on Steroid Maximus territory, the first thirty-five minutes (eight pieces), gradually build to a frenzy, through soundscapes, alien ethnicities, passing the eavesdropped sounds of sinister goings-on, on into haunting lullabies culminating in a epic eleven-minute-plus chase-opera…

The second part of the album, the final four pieces, are beautiful and twisted and enveloping, sometimes best listened to in a semi-somnambulistic state; by the end, the listener may find themselves in paroxysms of ecstasy at the beauty and sadness and strangeness and other-wordly quality of this cycle.

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Tapping into his instincts, Thirlwell completed the instrumental Volvox Turbo, album within six weeks (a record time for him) and released this exclusively through the online shop. An intensely psychological symphony, the album orbits several multiethnic soundscapes – from Moroccan to Martian – and manipulates those studio mistakes others try to avoid into 14 strangely compelling merging movements. It’s been called “a noir narrative filled with anticipation, foreboding and icy climaxes.” It resonates more with deep listening. It’s a killer acid trip without the LSD.