FLUXEUROPA: PINEAL VENTANA

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PINEAL VENTANA

PINEAL VENTANA are a seven piece from Atlanta who have been in existence since 1993. They’ve just released their CD Breathe As You Might which adds to their string of very promising material over the past few of years.

Living Soil (1995 Half Baked Records HBR0012) has a very powerful, angry sound. It reminds me a bit of the late seventies/early eighties anarcho-punk band, Crass, on their Penis Envy album. Also, with the saxophone largely present, the experimental eighties punk band, The Cravats, spring to mind.

There is certainly a lot of percussion some of which is drums and some is metal objects. Their female vocalist, Clara Clamp, mainly screams angrily, so on the whole this is for those who prefer something a bit on the loud side.

The picture disc twelve-inch, Let Them Fuck (1996 SCUSS 002), is very tribal as far as the two tracks on the first side are concerned. They're a bit in the early Siouxsie and the Banshees mould with much more of an angry, raw edge. The third track is a twenty-minute epic called 'The Screen'. It's a raw mixture of noise which progresses into the more familiar sound of Pineal's post-punk.

Breathe As You Might (1997 ALT3117-2) has the usual early eighties screeching punk sound but it’s evident here Pineal have progressed into a much tighter powerful band. From the word go this is pure energy with so much percussion crashing from all angles. Clara’s vocal style has a lot more diversity but the usual screams do mix in with the newer singing type voice sounding almost like Kat from Babes in Toyland at times. Where in their earlier work their only flaw was repetition it’s certainly not evident here .From the punky ‘Waterlogged’ to the nightmarish tribal semi-ambient ‘The Slow Shock Of Recognition’, Pineal Ventana have here brought back sounds almost forgotten, added their trademark and created something pretty intense and unique. Just don’t expect such a peaceful easy time!

JOHN MARSHALL
Updated: 24 December 1997

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