Foetus: Hide (Entopic Ents, 10/1/10)
Foetus: “Fortitudine Vincemus”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Foetus_Fortitudine_Vincemus.mp3|titles=Foetus: “Fortitudine Vincemus”]
Foetus is the best-known moniker of eclectic composer JG Thirlwell, whose multifarious recordings stretch across art rock, no wave, electronica, exotica, chamber music, big-band jazz, classical orchestrations, and much more. His later projects — Steroid Maximus, Manorexia, and the material for The Venture Bros. TV show — have expanded his exotic instrumentals.
Hide is his first studio album as Foetus since 2005, and it’s a dense collection of operatic/melodramatic vocals, baroque frills, bombastic arrangements, and even some metal drumming. Aside from a few electronic elements, nearly everything on Hide is organic and often performed by Thirlwell, who combines styles in a way that few others do.