SLUR Magazine Review

From SLUR Magazine, April 1992

PENETRATION REVIEW

by The Easter Bunny

The terrifying new effort by Shawn Pinchbeck is not to be taken lightly, it's a penetration alright; of the mind and soul. Common terms such as: like, enjoy, hate don't seem quite appropriate. Literally the album is experimental electronic music. It's not so wildly experimental as the work of Nurse with Wound or A.A.M., but more in a vein of Skinny Puppy.

This is a work of darkness. The music ranges from cacophonic to hypnotic, almost dark side new age. Where Pinchbeck succeeds is in his conjuration of evil. The title sounds sexual, but don't be deceived, it's more like the penetration of an electric drill into the brain. Penetration is an acoustic landscape of sinister and horrifying dimensions. A descent into a mechanistic underworld of explosions, screams, and disembodied voices. Electronic demons fade in and out of the sound space with their agonized melodies and monotones. The rhythmic pounding on "Ghosties" and "Virus 23" fill the listener with a sense of impending doom: the annihilation of all reality. The sexual allusion finds expression on the title track, and although the moans by themselves sound like the product of carnal delight; given their acoustic context, they seem more the result of torture. The most ambitious piece on the album is "Virus 23". At 14 minutes and 8 seconds long, and over a series of movements; "Virus 23" is a beautiful understatement: a slow moving dream: which of course maintains the themes of terror and pain.

You've seen horror movies, haven't you? Well this is horror music. Why? In the words of Aldous Huxley:

"...Fear of course, is a thrill like any other, fear is a hideous kind of fun."

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