Marc Almond and Foetus
Slut
Thirsty Ear
Boy, if you want to clear the house, this will do it. Of course, this shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone familiar with Foetus and his various collaborations over, what is it now, fifteen years? This one’s with Marc Almond, who I remember from Soft Cell and “Tainted Love.”
Apparently, Slut was originally released more than ten years ago in Europe, with the band listed as “Flesh Volcano.” Catchy…
As one would expect, the music is generally a schizophrenic mish-mash of tribal drums, grunts, free-verse, and the occasional harpsichord. The title track sounds as though it was recorded in a jungle during a fertility ritual (“Slut! Slut!”), or maybe an anthem to loose women… Regardless, it’s way the heck out there in avant garde land. “The Universal Cess Pool” and “Bruise N Chain” sound as though they were performed with kitchen utensils and sung through aluminum funnels. If you aren’t familiar with the anti-music that characterizes any Foetus collaboration, what I’m saying is this: this gets as close as possible to the edge of the fence separating noise from music.
However, there are two treats on Slut – “A Million Manias” sounds like a classic Raymond Scott manic mechanical jazz tune, and “Beat Out the Rhythm on a Drum” is simply Marc Almond singing “Beat Out the Rhythm on a Drum” over and over again to the tune of a well-known light opera song I can’t recall, but I know I’ve heard it before! For you Foetus purists, come and get it. For the rest of you, this is a very disturbing record. For real Reagan-era bohemians only. Thirsty Ear Recordings, 274 Madison Ave., Suite 804, New York, NY 10016;
