Two LPs by J G Thirlwell aka Scraping Foetus Off the Wheel: “Nail” and “Hole”.
“Scraping Foetus Off the Wheel” is a nom de guerre of J G Thirlwell, an Aussie musician who wrote, performed and produced 4 albums under that name by himself. A brilliant, in demand composer (he’s been commissioned by The Kronos Quartet, among others), these LPs must be heard to be believed. Imagine the sound of someone creating a musical cacophony by dropping several tons of sheet metal from a ten story building onto a busy city street, using that sound to quote everyone from surfer music bands like Jan and Dean to nursery rhymes to swing to krautrock to Sibelius and everything in between, with a vocal growl like Frankenstein, and whatever volume you might have been imagining this might be, just quadruple it, all while keeping the gas petal pressed to the floor for 45 minutes without ever ever letting up. Seemingly a musical omnivore, Thirlwell devours everything and spits it back out in a scrap heap of sonic chaos, twisted beyond recognition. His oblique yet subversive lyrical themes don’t make his music any more palatable for the faint of heart. This is the sound of unfiltered imagination, absolutely unencumbered by notions of commerce or accessibility. In fact it can double as a great way to clear a party.
THAT is what this sounds like. It’s a wall of sound that makes Phil Spector’s sound like you are listening through tin cans and a string.
It’s brilliant genius and it’s not ever ever ever going to be for everybody.