Jim Thirwell's third album under the guise of Steroid Maximus is anepic, cinematic vacation from the razor-gargled industrial pound ofFoetus. The underlying thread of irreverent and sophisticated humor(throughout all of Thirwell's work) is immediately apparent in thealbum title's play against the Futurist (utopian) cover art. Ectopiameans "a morbid displacement of parts." Unsurprisingly, this mostlyinstrumental album splices a multitude of parts: unlikely genres,samples and sounds into a compelling collage. Various parts includestrains of horror strings, sci-fi theremin wailing, jazzy synths, 70'scop-chase rhythm piano, funk drums, whimsical toy whistles, ecstaticswing band crescendos, mournful operatic vocalizations, hawaiiansunrise, gypsy music, and even a straight-up sample of James Bondsuspense-moment near the end, just to name a few. One of my favoriteparts of the disc is "WM ," where a couple of shortwave radio samplesform a bouncy passage over tribal drums and xylophones. Thirwellclearly maintains his proclivity for cartoonish dynamism (he did abang-up cover of the classic Raymond Scott tune "Powerhouse" on 1992's'Gondwanaland'), as the pace rollercoasters throughout the disc's 52minutes. It's an energizing listen, and reminded me at times of IgorWakhevitch , or the soundtrack work of Goblin ('Suspiria', 'Dawn of theDead', etc) and Alain Goraguer ('Fantastic Planet'), with big bandsplash and modern synth lines. Someone needs to hurry up and hire thisguy to start scoring films—or maybe start making movies to go alongwith these soundtracks.
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