If you thought that Foetus, a.k.a. J.G. Thirlwell, a.k.a. Clint Ruin, would return from his self-imposed exile like One Flew Over the Cuckoo Nest's lobotomized and placid Randall McMurphy, guess again. Malicious cliche inversions and dour lyrics like "buckshot methodology" and "a marriage made in the emergency ward" indicate that Mr. Foe to Us hasn't mellowed or grown sentimental on his latest CD, Flow (Thirsty Ear). He reclaims the throne from heirs like NIN with the brutal garbage-disposal industrial rhythms of "Quick Fix," but also stretches out with the "psychological symphony" of "Kreibabe" and the swooning big-band jazziness of "Cirrhosis of the Heart." There's a cinematic grandeur to Flow, which is elaborately layered with unusual contrasts, like the way Hahn Rowe's violin slithers beguilingly through the cold ghost-chain rattles of "Mandelay."
  

Original source: LA Weekly, 22 June 2001, by Falling James

© LA Weekly 2001