May 18, 1999, 2:05 pm PT

Foetus, aka J.G. Thirlwell, is currently putting the finishing touches on his next installment of avant- garde noise rock -- with or without a label deal.

The new Foetus album, currently in production, will be called Flow, according to Thirlwell. "I'm starting to tie it up but it probably won't see the light of day until next spring [2000] since I'm not sure which label I'm going to go with. I'm not going to shop it around until I've finished it."

Foetus' last effort, Gash, surfaced on Columbia Records in 1995. A Foetus live album, as well as albums as the Foetus Symphony Orchestra and Foetus, Inc., were released in 1997. On Flow, Thirlwell promises, as always, something different.

"All the Foetus albums are different and this one is different yet again," he says. "It's almost more of a step sideways from Gash because I feel if you continue to make the ultimate pre-Apocalypse statement, you can't just say, 'And another thing...!' It's more of a song cycle about where I'm at right now, and [it's] to be continued. It's kind of conceptual as well, but I haven't written the manifesto about it yet."

Besides the Foetus record, Thirlwell has also been keeping busy with a slew of remixing/mixing projects, including recent remix work for the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion with Andre Williams ("Lap Dance") and 3 Colours Red ("Paranoid People"), and mixing work on a new Boss Hog track ("Jaguar").

Thirlwell also plans on resurrecting his Steroid Maximus project in 2000 -- an undertaking that hasn't seen a recording studio since 1992's Gondawanaland. Ectopia, the latest in the instrumental concept album series, is planned for sometime next year.

- Kevin Raub

14 Aug 99.