Search - Foetus :: Boil

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09/25/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Knowledgeable fans will admit that Thirwell is as much a personality as a musician. For those fans who appreciate that aspect of the music--the Artist's unleashed ego--Boil is perfect. Compared to Rife, the production on this second live album is miserable. The first half, taken from a Scotland show, sounds like it was recorded by some drunk redneck with a one-channel cassette-recorder; to get any sense of the music, you have to turn the volume up ridiculously high. The second half, recorded in Brussels, is better but not perfect. But these are trifling details when you listen. Thirwell here comes across not as a neurotic recluse holed up in a studio, constructing bizzare soundscapes from sampled swing music, scrap metal & meticulously crafted instrumental loops, but rather as a testosterone-swollen rockstar. The music is all rewritten for a standard rockband setup: a handful of guitars, a drummer, a bassist or two, and a keyboardist. Against the screaming confusion of sound emerge throbbing, organic renditions of previously mechanical numbers like "Mighty Whitey" and "I'll Meet You in Poland." And then there are Thirwell's witty dedications: "This one's for the Scottish Nationalist Party ...""

One for collectors

I X Key | tomorrow | 05/10/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"this is a cd that i'm glad i have, but the sound quality is pretty awful so it's not like something i listen to much. it's interesting to listen to; it's good music, but it's not really one of the most important foetus releases. it's rock format like the foetus live album Male. i recommend that you buy this cd if you're already a fan, but probably not so much if you're looking for something you'll want to spend a lot of time listening to"