by Jim HarperAlthough the aural assaults of Foetus could never be described as commercial, on 1988's Thaw, Jim Thirlwell reaches his most accessible. All the traditional harsh, machine-based noise is still present, but in slightly more conventional patterns than before. Opening track Don't Hide It Provide It rides on a mutant disco groove that many of Thirlwell's contemporaries would sell their souls to come up with, but it's something that he manages to do several times on the album. Not all of Thaw is danceworthy, and some of it is almost unlistenable -- Asbestos is three minutes of screeching violins -- but songs like Barbedwire Tumbleweed demonstrate just how far ahead of the pack Thirlwell is. When he's on this kind of form, he's one of the best.