Foetus Maximus
Jim Thirlwell, a demon for all seasons
By Skylaire Alfvegren
LA Weekly: Wednesday, August 29, 2001 - 12:00 am
As DJ Otefsu (“I tell people it’s from a dialect in Ghana and means ‘handsome, flame-haired prince’”), Thirlwell has spun for the likes of Wire and Suicide. “It’s not really connected to DJ culture or turntablism. I create an atmosphere, a ’60s–’70s crime/spy noir backdrop. Once I create this framework, then a lot of different things can be poured into it.” Alongside pieces by Thurston Moore and Christian Marclay, a collection of Thirlwell’s album artwork is currently featured in “The LP Show” at the Exit Gallery in Soho. Scheduled to hit stores September 16, Blow, the companion to Flow, features celebrity remixes by Kid 606, Panacea, DJ Food, PanSonic, Franz Treichler (the Young Gods) and Phylr, among others. Thirlwell is finalizing plans for a Blow extravaganza to be held in L.A. sometime in January.
Most exciting is Thirlwell’s newest incarnation as Manorexia, whose all-instrumental “monsterpiece” Volvox Turbo (available only through www.foetus.org or at shows) is a creepy crawl through a global village that’s equal parts Valhalla, Hades and Tatooine; he’ll be bringing it to UCLA in spring. With Manorexia, “I’m the action man,” he says. “One of the criteria was that I trust my first instinct, and that created a freedom I don’t remember ever having.”
Like most great things, Thirlwell’s music is timeless, but one can also trace the evolution of recording technology through his work. “When I started out, I was using tape machines. Sampling technology didn’t exist. When sampling came along, it offered a different way of organizing things. Now the technology that once cost $1 million can be taken home in a box. I’m certainly not a Luddite, but I have kept one foot in the Stone Age. Definitely, production and engineering have always informed my songwriting process.
“I’m the original non-musician. I know what I want to hear, I know what parts I want to play, and then I’ll pick up that instrument and bang it out,” Thirlwell grins. In the studio, he’s a demonic, goofier Brian Eno, except Eno “doesn’t pick up the same instruments.”
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