Pine Tree State Mind Control "Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy" CD
[Voidstar]
I've been quite looking forward to this new full-length of experimental noise, two tracks of which were recorded live in Rhode Island, the rest of which was surprisingly tracked in Sweden. As with past material from this curious project, the work here is quite conceptually based, with a serious message underlying the compositions. Opener "Chronoplasty" is a bit more chaotic than much of what I recall hearing from this duo in the past, while the following "Nowhere" is more percussive and rhythmic, with subtle distortion and ambient throbs making for a rather sinister and persistent death industrial landscape. The longer "Järnkrydda" (a touch under seven minutes) is similar in its use of rhythm, though a bit more sparse, and also manipulating more distorted layers and a decomposing vocal sample that's impossible to make out due to immense pitch shifting. The middle of the disc emits a few shorter selections that run in the neighborhood of two minutes or so each, starting with the minimal decaying sounds/samples of "Gnomon". "Wasquero" is similar in its quieter delivery and use of pitch shifted (and reversed) vocal samples, but the actual elements of the track are a bit more ambient and subtly melodic in nature. Admittedly all of this pitch shifting of vocals gets on my nerves after awhile since a number of these tracks employ that device, and I think it would be more effective were things not so low and indecipherable, but it is effective in this piece. The awesome "Acetic Pepsid" continues with a dark ambient synth presence and changes it up with a concrete beat that has more of an industrial edge to it. Another amazing selection is "Declasse Posse", which eventually builds itself into a resonant dark ambient selection complete with some openly melodic synths that have an emotional sort of tangent happening. The two live tracks actually fit in very well with the other material here, the sound quality is quite similar, they're stylistically similar in both structure and breakdown of elements (pitch shifted samples, borderline muddy distortion, a subtle sense of rhythm, harsh distortion with more minimal passages, etc.), and so on. Another aspect I notice on this CD is that the recording quality, while rather dense and possessing a certain tactful rawness to some of its textures, is loud as shit! Even some of the more minimal pieces like the aforementioned "Nowhere" are exceedingly loud, which is quite interesting. Some of the more abrasive feedback tones and harsh distortion on the disc can be highly destructive in headphones as a result. Visually not only is this release quite different from anything I've seen from PTSMC before, but it's unlike most anything I've seen from this entire genre. The artwork is all done in a crisp cartoon sort of style, full color, depicting images in line with the band's message: Here focusing on production/consumption with a few blatant references to war and the medical industry. Inside is a great deal of explanatory text ironically playing into the concept of target marketing through subliminal messages and such with disclaimers of subversive messages to alter behavior in "aggression response", "urge cleansing", etc. The majority of these tracks are very consistent and almost hypnotic or droning in their use of repetition, which is not only a nice touch, but does play into this whole scheme perfectly as well (most obviously in "Acetic Pepsid"). Another strong release from one of the more intriguing projects out there in the US right now. I've been interested since my first exposure to them and that has certainly carried over with time. Good work, and I'll always be looking forward to more. I still feel that this unit is sitting on a major goldmine of future potential that hasn't yet blossomed in full. (7/10)
Running time - 55:17, Tracks: 12
[Notable tracks: Nowhere, Järnkrydda, Acetic Pepsid, Declasse Posse]
Pine Tree State Mind Control - http://www.ptsmc.org

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