Frenetically creative, and playing only by his own rules, Thirlwell has never stopped experimenting and evolving his sound. While his music is most often outside of any genre, it is most frequently described as Industrial or No-Wave. His earlier music is usually quite harsh and distorted, although since Love, his music became increasingly orchestral and symphonic, sometime sounding like a full orchestra, but, as usual, is actually only J.G Thirlwell himself, sometimes with a few guest musicians on select tracks, His latest album, Hide, goes even further in this direction than Love did, beginning with an operatic piece sung by Abigail Fischer.
He has inspired many following "industrial" artists; like Nine Inch Nails, Pig and Cop Shoot Cop, among others, with his sonic assault and innovative use of studio technology, and was a key contributor on Coil's groundbreaking debut album Scatology as well as appearing on a few early Nurse With Wound recordings.
Thirlwell has also worked on collaborations under the names of Steroid Maximus (multiple collaborators), Stinkfist (with Lydia Lunch), Flesh Volcano (with Marc Almond), Baby Zizanie (with Jim Coleman) and Wiseblood (with Roli Mosimann of Swans); and does remix work as well, often under the name of Foetus.
Maybe his most controversial work was on the christian industrial label REX Records. Thirlwell was the eerie, creepy voice at the opening of the album Misguided by Argyle Park.
Thirlwell is also the Composer In Residence for Adult Swim's "The Venture Brothers".
For the video release of Season 3, a soundtrack album was also released, titled "The Venture Bros.: The Music of JG Thirlwell". This is the same audio CD included as a bonus with the Blu-ray version of Season 3. While the CD release was originally made available at Adult Swim's website, it was given a wide release on May 12, 2009;[15] the vinyl LP release came out a month earlier. It can also be downloaded from most major digital retailers. The CD features 20 tracks, while the vinyl LP release is 16 tracks.[16]
In the episode "The Trial of the Monarch," The Monarch mentions a picture of Dr. Girlfriend "skinny dipping with Jim Foetus," a reference to Thirlwell.
From Wikipedia:Foetus is the primary musical outlet of industrial music pioneer J. G. Thirlwell. Until 1995 the band underwent various name changes, all including the word foetus. Monikers adopted at different times include Foetus Under Glass, You've Got Foetus On Your Breath and Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel. After 1995 the name permanently became Foetus, though the related project The Foetus Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1997 and continues.
Thirlwell acts as the sole instrumentalist, vocalist, songwriter and producer for all Foetus works and as such is the only member of the band. Other artists may occasionally collaborate with Thirlwell on Foetus works but are not considered members of Foetus. Thirlwell is solely responsible for the musical output of the band.
J. G. Thirlwell has many side-projects, in which he frequently goes by the name Clint Ruin. One such grouping is Wiseblood with former Swans member 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 center around the misanthropic exertion of power, typically via murder, sex or assault. Wiseblood existed on-and-off from the mid 1980s through early 1990s.