5 out of 5

Label: Thirsty Ear (CD)

Producer: J.G. Thirlwell

Thirwell is the man.  You know that already.  But before I dug deep into the Foetus relics, going back to the early albums, I had no idea music of this nature could exist when it did and sound as good as it did.  I mean, it was still rare, even amongst the weirdo underground, but if you pop Ache into your player, how blown is your mind that this was 1982?  The prior album, Deaf, is equally weird and excellent and surprising, but it’s almost too angular for its own good.  Ache is the Foetus sound in rare form, still fully fucktacular but listenable from start to finish without shaking your head at spotty moments of bombast.  Moving into the 90s, the producer that I would come to love, a Mr. Dave Sardy, sprung off into an awesome mash of rock and noise called Barkmarket.  Sardy would go on to produce one of my favorite albums of all time – Fantastic Spikes by the fantastically funky and funked Skeleton Key.  Both of these bands were very obviously influenced by the energy and oddity of Foetus.  Ache is awesome.