4 out of 5

Label: Thirsty Ear (CD)

Producer: Wiseblood (Clint Ruin AKA J.G. Thirlwell and Roli Mosimann of Swans)

I’ve never listened to Swans so I can’t cop to whether or not this pulls from their oeuvre, but Wiseblood, being a Thirlwell project, definitely bears his mark of partially aggressive, partially gross, partially sneering, partially noise… on Dirtdish it is cut with some endurance, which I attribute to the Swans influence, some tracks just pummeling a beat into perpetuity for minutes.  This is less schizo in terms of musical variation than most Foetus releases, and definitely rings of a precursor to NIN-style industrial, but Wiseblood still carries that J.G. smarmy intelligence that, to me, bumps his music up a step above on the industrial ladder.  Some of the lyrics wander off, as they usually do, and along with that endurance concept we have a repetition in lyrics that’s more noticeable than it is on Foetus stuff, but this is still excellent, piss-your-neighbors off music that’ll puzzle the black-clad crowd because it’s just a tad askew.  It’s not perfect, as a couple of the tracks seem purposefully reaching, but if your ears get tired of searching for a beat in other Thirlwell stuff, this is a good resting point.