Fetus Productions ‎– Fetus Product (1981)

Fetus Productions were a pioneering post-punk industrial-music group in the early 1980s, whose activities intersected with the worlds of experimental film, art and fashion. The members were often dispersed, active in several countries simultaneously. Fetus Productions attacked the mass media’s promulgation of perfect images and perfect bodies by using horrific material, images of medical misadventure and mutation. Co-founder Jed Town wanted to “strip it all down to see the bare essentials, the internal organs and the skeletons, to expose the beauty of human frailty.” Underpinning their work was a philosophy: a concern for human rights, an organic respect for life, and a resistance to media-fed preconceptions. Fetus Productions evolved from the remnants of The Features, a band that briefly appeared at the tail end of the punk boom. In just six months The Features had became notorious for their fierce live shows and the visceral imagery adorning their two vinyl releases. The artwork for their single CITY SCENES (1980), created by guitarist Jed Town, was credited to Fetus Productions. The cover of their second release, EXPOSED (1980), depicted a skinless human machine. It was attributed to The Perfect Features, a name revealing an emerging interest in ideas of human engineering and perfection.

Not really sure where to start with this comment. I just feel I need to say SOMETHING. For a start the album is amazing. And I'm aware my idea of amazing may not be yours but I'll try and say what trips my trigger. What gets me, aside from the typically dark sound characteristic of Fetus Productions, the "sampled" voices from medical surgeries and horror films (before samplers existed), the synths, the effects, the beautifully twisted guitars is the technical and technological sophistication of the music in general. It blows me away that this was recorded in 1981. It sounds SOOOO advanced and very hi-tech. It came well, well, well ahead of the Aphex Twin and light-years ahead of similar, yet, less original music from the early '90s. I'm stunned by what I hear and can't help but listen to what has been created. This stuff is ground-breaking, unique and incredibly pure and original. I really don't think I can say I've heard anything like it.... except for other FP records. Anyway, this is what music is all about - a medium with incredible potential for artistic creativity, yet rarely explored except by a handful of open-minded people, and that certainly includes Fetus Productions. Bubblegum pop this is not!!! Beware!!

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