How often have you heard of someone being ahead of their time. The term is normally applied to
someone that makes major leaps forward in their field, be it artistic, or scientific. Often these artists, if not actually ridiculed by their peers are often ignored or sidelined, only later are they acknowledged for their role in the development of x.
Often they are groundbreakers pushing a genre into a different direction and sometimes the artist
involved brings the thing back closer to the mainstream. The important thing is that these artists get the chance to be heard.
Over the years, PINKIE MACLURE has been responsible for pushing a few musical barriers, both
as a solo artist and with her band The Puritans. She has releases to her credit on a number of labels, most notably Red Flame and Brave. In fact the album she recorded for brave "This Dirty Life" is one of my all time faves.
"This Dirty Life" was released in the late 80s and apart from a cassette of material and a contribution to works from Chemical Plant, there has been little opportunity to hear this artist unless you were lucky enough to hear about live shows in time to get to London to actually see them.
Fortunately that could all be changing in the near future as plans are emerging for a new release in the not too distant future and if the recent demos that I've heard are anything to go by the release should be nothing short of stunning.
The thrust of MacLure's work over the years has always been vocal, not limiting herself to lyrics, but
also using the voice as an instrument, in a similar way to Bjork. Bjork makes an excellent reference point, in that on some of her songs on "Debut", she sounds like MacLure did at around the time of "This Dirty Life".
That in itself shows that the world has moved on and too a degree caught up with what Pinkie was
doing and at the same time Pinkie has adapted her material and style and taken it down a slightly
different path.
One of the changes she has made is to re-invent herself as The Pinkie MacLure Group and it is under that name that she has signed a deal with Placebo and will be releasing a new album in the early part of 1995.
The new material is lyrically stronger, but the emphasis continues to be on the voice. The new songs, though not mainstream should have a far broader appeal than some of PinkieÆs earlier material, without losing any of the strength or character.
The track here is The Pinkie MacLure Group's debut release and is a scintillating appetiser for what
is surely to follow. Perhaps the world is now better able to receive Pinkie's work than it was in the past, potentially the time is right for her to make the breakthrough she so richly deserves. There have been too many artists that have given up on what they were trying to achieve, simply because it was easier to slot into a pigeonhole. Pinkie MacLure slots into a pigeonhole simply marked Pinkie MacLure.
