Movie In My Head: Purity Ring's Cinematic Second Album

Purity Ring

It's been a few years since I reviewed Canada's Purity Ring's first album.  Since then, they have entered the pantheon of my favorite bands.  "Shrines" has been become one of my all-time preferred electronic albums, and this band is so worthy of the 4AD label that they belong to.  Remarkably, their second album, last year's "another eternity" is even better.

As a teenager, when I used to listen to the bands on 4AD, I used to let the broad scope of the music draw me into daydreams.  I would let the music create dreamlike images in my head.  Purity Ring does this for me as well.

This isn't your run-of-the-mill electronica.  Yes, it is trip hop.  Yes, it is witch house.  Yes, it is synthpop.  Yes, it is dream pop.  But it is much more than that.  There is a bravado about their music, a cinematic sweep, a bellicose grandeur that is impossible to ignore.  They ignore traditional song arrangements.  The beat is off-kilter and staggering, deliberately slow.  Last review, I mentioned "a slow jam on acid", and that comparison still holds true.  The synth arrangements are orchestral and panoramic, often building up to tantalizing pitches.  And once more, Megan James' voice is clear, sweet and morose, silver lyrics spilling from her tongue, Her lyrics are stark and personal.  This is far from club music.  This is poetic music set to poetry.  Like in the song "begin again":

"You be the moon I'll be the earth

And when we burst

Start over oh darling

Begin again

My moon oh my moon

Not even into

Another eternity

Will you stop your lovely orbiting

I had held it a world away

Until my body began to say

I need not one thing more

Oh wrap the ground around

Your gentle winding mind

Oh guard the pounding sound

Breathe in your fiery air"

And that's just one example.  The whole album is lyrical.

The album starts out "heartsigh" giving way to a slow beat and sweet vocals, building up to pictorial crests of music.  "bodyache" combines tinkling piano keys with a dense bass beat.  "push pull" combines hopeful music with bleak lyrics like:

"There was no light and I swear

I could see the roaring fear

I heard the plains moaning back

I saw the thunder roll o'er black"

"repetition" is honeyed, golden, and nostalgic, the vocal melody looming over the music.  "stranger the earth" is stripped down to an earthquake bass thrum with voice.  "begin again" is one of my favorites, shimmering and melancholic.  "dust hymn" has intense, insistent celestial chimes.  "flood

on the floor" is another favorite, one that seems to make it onto most of my mixes.  Heavy drum beat, heavy reverb on vocals with expansive synths.  "sea castle" has soft piano with heavenly layers of sound, James' voice having a cabaret quality until it builds up in force.  The album ends beautifully with "stillness in woe" is incredibly sad, a hushed symphony giving a way to pulsing synths like a light wash of rain, with exquisite lyrics:

"Don't be afraid if it's a little but close

I built a kingdom of your throats, I'm seeing double

Don't be afraid if there's no wind in my hair

There's a stillness left in there, I'm seeing double"

I really don't understand why I am not hearing more about this band out there.  They are truly innovative, artistic, and unique.  When I look for music, I look for bands just like this that move something inside of me,  Oh well.  They can stay hidden as far as I am concerned.  They can be the private movie in my head.

Moroni's Review of Purity Ring's "Shrines"

My grandfather was from Mexico, and his favorite kind of music was a brass music called banda sinaloense. This kind of polka music was loud, brash, and discordant.  My dad told me that Mexican men liked to listen to this music when they are very drunk.  When I listened to it, I could see why.  The music sounded like a drunk man lurching down the street, barely able to keep on his feet, and yet not falling.

What does banda sinaloense have to do with Purity Ring's debut album "Shrines"?

Well, first of all, I will tell you what this band is.  They are an electronic duo from Edmonton, Alberta.  They were signed to the prestigious 4AD label (which included Cocteau Twins and Dead Can Dance, and whom I recently posted about here).

So, this is not a very conventional electronic band.  Their rhythm is very discordant.  There is no beat in the normal sense.  It is staggered and severed is several places.  There is no pulse where you are expecting one, and beats fill what you think will be empty spaces.  This is not the " boom boom boom" of club techno.  But you know what?  It works!

The music is slow and languid, like a slow jam on an acid trip.  (Sometimes it is just a bit plain slow-moving.)  And the same concept flows through every song from start to finish, each song blending into the next, making this a wonderful, dark ambient experiment.  The cement that hold it all together is Megan James' breathy, dreamy vocals.  It took several listens, but I see this album becoming one of my favorites.  Never has trip-hoppy music been so compelling since Mono in the '90s.

I am usually not a "lyric person", but James' lyrics are so stark and vivid and beautiful that you can't help but take note.  It's like poetry.  For instance, this selection from "Obedear":

I came down over the sleeping mountains

Where our white tones plunged

Into the weeping shelter

Tear our skin up out from the bottom

Leaves our ankles bare

Don't just wander back and forth and leave it

Build it into

Pinnacles and shrines

Of some,

Some ghastly predicament in mind

You'll find

Leaves us plastered to a bed of hairs

We'll be all coiled up near the bottom

With my chest, unbare it

Obedear, the sky is low

Gather up its harm and gods

With grateful arms

Obedear, the sky is low

Gather up its harm and gods

With grateful arms

It is hard to pinpoint which songs are my favorite, because they all kind of sound the same.  Songs that stand out are "Fineshrine", "Amenamy", "Obedear", and "Lofticries".  (I know - unusual, yet pleasant song titles.)  My favorite song, by far,  is "Belispeak".  They have also released a single called "Belispeak II", which is essentially a reprisal of the song with rapper Danny Brown.  It's great.

There is nothing mainstream about this album, but it is a jewel.  If you like electronica, and if you like original music, then check this selection out.  It is worth it.

Moroni's Retro-Review of "Lonely Is An Eyesore"

It was 1987, and, in my 17 year-old opinion, the best record label in the universe was 4AD.

This was the label that had given us such great acts in the early '80s as Bauhaus, Modern English, the Birthday Party, and Lydia Lunch.  Today, they continue to amaze with acts such as Iron & Wine, TV On the Radio, Bon Iver, and Purity Ring.

In 1987, it was Cocteau Twins, This Mortal Coil, Dead Can Dance, as well as new acts, the Pixies and Throwing Muses (both out of Boston).

As a promotion of their music, the British label put out a compilation that showcased their best bands.  I think I made a special trip to Tower Records in Tempe, Arizona to buy it.  The LP came in a really nice case complete with a booklet with photographs and articles of each band, produced by 23 Envelope - 4AD's visual department.  I treasured this LP.  They also released the album on VHS, also produced by 23 Envelope, with each video shot in grainy black and white - very artsy.  I no longer have the LP, but I still have the VHS cassette.  I wanted to add it to my collection, and so I decided to download this treasure digitally. Of course, I decided to review it.

Now that many years have passed since I first bought this album (26!), it is easy to see how much influence that Ivo Watts-Russel, the iconoclastic founder of the 4AD label, had over his musicians.  Just like the videos, the music all has common aspects.  This makes for a great concept album, envisioned by each of the different artists.

The first song is a a rowdy tune by Colourbox, an electronic outfit.  The song, "Hot Doggie", has a dance beat and rocking guitar layered beneath a barrage of samples - most of them from movies like "Evil Dead" and "The Last Starfighter".  Colourbox created a hit that same year under the name M/A/R/S called "Pump Up the Volume".  You may have heard of it.  (It was also a 4AD release.)

The second song is "Acid, Bitter, and Sad" by This Mortal Coil - one of my favorite bands of all time.  This Mortal Coil, however, is not really a band.  It is a project concocted by  4AD executives Ivo Watts-Russel and John Fryer, who both serve as musicians.  This Mortal Coil would typically do cover songs from late '60s and early '70s acts like Tim Buckley, and each song would consist of a series of guest musicians, most of them from the 4AD catalog.  They released three albums, and I would highly recommend them to anyone.  "Acid, Bitter, and Sad" is a typical example of This Mortal Coil's music - dreamy and ethereal.  It starts out with wind chimes and soft electronic music with vocals provided by '90s house music artist Alison Limerick, her voice run through an early equivalent of AutoTune.  Then the song build up to an orchestral crescendo.  A very nice song.

Track #3 is  "Cut the Tree" by Wolfgang Press, also one of my favorite '80s bands.  The song is very slow-paced and was always reminiscent of "Wrapped Around Your Finger" by the Police.  Except that the vocals provided by Michael Allen (who sport white dreadlocks in the video) are deep, typical of most gothic bands of this era, and sets the song apart, along with its stark lyrics.

The next song is "Fish" by Throwing Muses, and the title "Lonely is an Eyesore" comes from the lyrics of this Boston quartet.  They were fresh and young at the time they were signed to 4AD, formed by step-sisters Kirstin Hersh and Tanya Donelly (who went on to co-found the Breeders with Pixies' bassist Kim Deal, also a 4AD act.)  I had the chance of meeting and seeing Throwing Muses live in 1989.  They opened up for New Order, and the thing that struck me - this band was fronted by three women that scarcely stood above five feet, and they rocked.  This song - driven by its staccato drum beat and Hersh's wailing vocals - is no different.  The album contains a studio version of this song, but the video is a messier impromptu version of the song that captures some of their live energy.

This is followed by "Frontier" by Dead Can Dance.  Many may not know that this legendary set of musicians started out in the punk communes of Melbourne, Australia in the late '70s.  They would assemble and make music on whatever implement they could find - pots or pans.  On their self-titled debut album released in 1984, Dead Can Dance released a studio version of this song.  But on this compilation, it's the version of this song from their demo, which was made in one take with Lisa Gerrard making up her nonsensical lyrics on the spot.  The interesting thing about this song - the instrumentation consists of them banging on metal drums filled with water, true to their roots.

Cocteau Twins - anyone who know me knows that this band (whom I was fortunate to see live in 1994, shortly before their breakup) is one of my favorite bands.  This is a band that has gone through many phases - from spooky gothic in the early '80s, to the ancient Greek of "Treasure" to the liquidy chimes of "Victorialand".  This song - "Crushed" - was from their "Love's Easy Tears" phase.  It is scintillating jangle pop.  Liz Fraser's vocals are resplendent.  The best description that I have ever heard of Robin Guthrie's guitars is "feather-light guitars that sound like anything but guitars".  Their music is so unique and has always withstood classification.  This song is a jeweel.

Dij Juz is a band that I still know little about, but I always enjoyed their song "No Motion", which is an instrumental that seems to have strong jazz roots.  A guitar driven song, it starts out with a strong bass line and a watery guitar, and they it splashes into its climax.

Clan of Xymox was one of my favorite bands.  Their first few albums still are favorites of mine.  I used to describe them to people in the '80s as "dance goth".  Eventually, they became a parody of the gothic image people have of them.  I look at their live videos now and laugh at the black lace and poofy hair.  But at their core, they were really good songwriters, especially on this catchy tune "Muscoviet Mosquito".  At the time, it was rare to combine acoustic guitar with electronic dance music, but that was Xymox's signature.  The infectious rhythm is carried by Anke Wolbert's rapid fire guitar strumming, and Ronny Moorings wailing vocals.  In fact, now that I think of it, I only liked Xymox as long as Anke Wolbert and Pieter Nooten were involved.  Once they left, I lost interest.

This compilation is completed with "The Protagonist" by Dead Can Dance.  At the time, DCD always stated that they wished to write soundtracks, and, since then, their music has graced several soundtracks (Heat, The Myst, ect.), and Lisa Gerrard has gone on to score several films (Gladiator, Whale Rider, etc.)  This piece feels like it could be from a movie - grandiose and epic.  It is an instrumental complete with a full orchestra.  The brass section is particularly moving, along with an excellent oboe solo halfway through the song.  The song ends with a crashing finale, and diminishes away with chimes.

This album is a must-have for aficianados of 4AD's music, and it is a good intro to those curious about the artsy side of music in the '80s.