3″ CD-R, [walnut + locust], 2009
www.ptsmc.org
“Welcome to the official Pine Tree State Mind Control information center.” With dystopian movies like “Equilibrium” or “A Clockwork” Orange and related books such as “1984”, “Brave New World” and “This Perfect Day” you can imagine how this strikes you as futuristic or maybe even ‘unearthly’. It is nothing else then the opening sentence from the PTSMC website.
I have had the pleasure of seeing these guys perform a couple of times and each time they know how to make me smile, or at least giggle, or maybe just smirk, or whatever… They are funny with a message, something which in the harsh noise scene or dark ambient scene very often doesn’t get past the level of attempted shock-therapy.
Pine Tree State Mind Control have a way more intelligent approach to shock, or at least add some content to the noise. At the last concert I witnessed for example, they showed parts of a naked girl and they asked the audience whether they saw a) a naked girl, b) a sleeping girl or c) the last victim, raped and killed by no other then Ted Bundy. Nothing spectacular, but very definitely a refreshing approach in a scene filled with ‘rape, torture, death, kill, fuck, phlegm, Nazi, racist, fascist, poop, kill, smegma, phallus, kill, kill…’
This 3″ CD-r is maybe not the best Pine Tree State Mind Control release ever, but it contains a couple of left-overs too good to delete. A must have for completists and a little snack to satisfy your ears until the new CD is being released.
[7/10]
— Bauke van der Wal