JG Thirlwell: the man Lydia Lunch called her “hero”
As one of the pre-eminent figures in the New York no wave scene at the tail end of the 1970s, you can hardly say that Lydia Lunch hasn’t earned the right to be called a cult hero.
Making something that is somewhat designed to be countercultural isn’t going to make you everyone’s idea of a legend, but this is arguably not what people like Lunch were ever after. This type of creative practice is more about defying conventions within the artistic realm and challenging norms, and this is something that Lunch and many of her contemporaries were doing with glee during the movement’s most fruitful period.
While the scene she was a part of would eventually disperse after a few short years, with many of the core acts such as Mars and DNA disbanding soon after they’d begun to make an impression, the amount of artists in different strands that they inspired was broad, with the likes of Sonic Youth owing plenty to the influence of the no wave movement, especially Lunch’s contributions through Teenage Jesus & the Jerks. None of their efforts were guided by the allure of popularity or commerciality, they were simply there to make groundbreaking art.
However, the turn of the decade from the 1970s into the ‘80s also saw the emergence of industrial and noise music, which, while taking a few different directions compared to no wave, shared the same sense of goddamn abrasiveness that no wave had. Acts like Cabaret Voltaire, Throbbing Gristle and Ministry were all significant early proponents of this, and the shift from guitar-based noisemaking to a style that encompassed more aspects of experimental electronic music was something that many saw as an exciting fucking development in the avant-garde world.
Lunch was enthralled by the emergence of this movement and was especially entranced by the music of JG Thirlwell, the leader and sole continuous member of the Australian experimental project Foetus. Despite having gone under many different names, all with reference to the word Foetus, the project has continuously reinvented itself and pushed the boat out when it comes to making their music as atmospheric yet dark as possible. Their mid-80s efforts, such as Hole and Nail, are often considered landmark releases in the genre, but unlike the no wave movement, Thirlwell continued to push forward and expand upon the project’s sound well beyond their early years.
Even several decades into his career, Thirlwell continues to impress Lunch, and in an interview with Louder Than War, she expressed a particular fondness for a late-career highlight of his: ‘Here Comes the Rain’, taken from his 2010 album, Hide. “This song embodies the unending, thrilling genius that is JG Thirlwell,” she expressed to the magazine. “Gorgeous, frightening, funny, surreal, sexy, death-defying and beautiful. Both the man and his music. My hero.”
To this day, Thirlwell also remains a cult fucking hero to many within the noise and experimental rock scenes, and the fact that his more recent efforts are still held in high regard goes to show just how much he’s kept up his consistency and determination to keep innovating.
