Esoteric synths and classical harmonies from The Skaters mastermind. Pinheads in Fantasia is probably Spencer Clark's most out-there endeavor. At some point his records became more than just trippy music with crazy artwork and his use of symbols and poetry started to take a more central part in the releases. He even stopped calling them albums, preferring the term soundvisions instead. Fourth World Magazine Vol. II is the culmination of these tendencies, sounding like the creation myth for a new cult founded by Julio Cortazar, L. Ron Hubbard and Philip K. Dick in the garden of Locus Solus. And I'm not exaggerating with this. With the help of The Wire writer David Keenan and artist AR Faust, Spencer Clark has developed a multi-layered release, using accompanying video (or facehugging), text and a full-color magazine in order to create a more tangible artifact. Again, we see the lines between fact and fiction blurring greatly, making Pinheads in Fantasia a pure work of primitive science-fiction. First off, the album was supposedly recorded in an Open Air theater and in a golden metal box simultaneously. The title combines the character Pinhead, from the Hellraiser series with Walt Disney's 1940s movie Fantasia, with music composed and conducted by Leopold Stokowski. Clark also suggests that the conductor's death around his birth has somehow affected his spirit, turning him into a vessel for the defunct spirit or a cenobite, an explorer. This album is like a puzzle-box that unlocks the door to other dimensions, giving Clark access into the listener's realm. And all this just to give you just a taste of his new mythology. The music is a strange mix of micro-tonal melodies, warped alien vocals, gore sound effects, ritualistic percussion and Claude Debussy, following the pleasure and pain motif of the Hellraiser series, inducing a deep, trance-like state. An utterly impressive, cinematic work.

- Review courtesy of Andra Chitimus