In the wholly fucked up world of Jim Thirlwell, the Foetus alias was given a rest while he concentrated on giving the Wiseblood project some serious attention. Originally debuting with the 12" Motorslug / Death Rape 2000 single in May '85. Possibly thought to be a one off, it wasn't until November '86 that there were rumblings in the Wiseblood camp as a second 12" single rolled off the presses. Stumbo / Someone Drowned In My Pool showed that Thirlwell could work with other like-minded individuals. Posing this time as Clint Ruin, Thirlwell and Roli Mosimann (Swans) made serious hay in the sunshine.
Wiseblood is an electronic noise-rock band formed by Clint
Ruin, the king of deathly orchestration, the man whose music dives into the
deepest reaches of the condemned soul, the composer whose arrangements play
pied piper to the dark side and who once again teams up with the dark
industrial trudge of long-time contemporary Roli Mosimann. The material
tends toward the realm of the darkest and most sexual Foetus songs, with
Mosimann’s Swans lineage showing in the slow, crushing pacing of many tracks.
Thematically, Wiseblood’s lyrics centre around the misanthropic exertion of
power, typically via murder, sex or assault. Dirtdish radiates a good deal more
emotional force than some of Ruin’s more recent Foetus works. The songs all
build on heavy, intense tribal percussion overlayed with bits of whiney
distorted guitar (leads courtesy Robert Quine on Prime Gonzola and Someone
Drowned In My Pool), occasional violin and Ruin’s characteristic vocal style.
Dirtdish is full of Satanic religious fervour (indulge yourself with 0-0 (Where
Evil Dwells) and Godbrain) that builds in an intense layered fashion that only
a duo like this could pull off. In Ruin’s words, Wiseblood is violent macho
American [music] made by non-Americans.
