TRACK: Purity Ring - "Belispeak II (Feat. Danny Brown)"

I think it was impossible to ignore a lot of the hip-hop influences in Purity Ring's music, but this collaboration still caught me a bit off guard. I guess I didn't really expect Purity Ring to actually join forces with any rappers anytime soon, especially not somebody of Danny Brown's stature. But of course, everything seems to happen when you least expect it.

Danny brings his signature personality and a lightning fast flow on "Belispeak II". I think this track actually works surprisingly well with Danny on top of it. Id' say it sounds like the original "Belispeak" got turned into a club banger more than anything on this track, but have a listen for yourself down below.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Purity Ring - Shrines

By Steve Jones.

Purity Ring is the electronic music project of Corin Roddick (of GOBBLE GOBBLE (now Born Gold) fame) and vocalist Megan James. We have a lovely Northern Exposure exposé on the band that you can read for further elucidation. Shrines is their full length debut on the heels of a hype-building string of internet singles.

I avoided most of the singles for this record. It wasn't a very conscious decision, but I tend to be more of an album guy, digesting music in one 40-minute swoop instead of a few minutes spread across a few months. I did, however, listen to Purity Ring's first single, "Ungirthed," which was revealed over a year ago, and I dug the hell out of it. It was like someone took a serrated blade to a radio pop song and then pieced it back together in grotesquely Frankensteinian manner. The beat was herky and jerky, demonic voices and electronics clawed at my ears, and the vocalist was unsuitably heavenly. It sounded like a fresh take on synth pop, free of the then-ubiquitous trappings of chillwave.



Shrines sounds exactly like I expected the album to sound after hearing "Ungirthed." In fact, it sounds a bit too much like I expected. In fact, after the first track, you're given the formula for what each of the following ten tracks is going to sound like.

1) Take some deep bass or howling
2) Contrast with tinny synth sounds
3) Add some cheap drum machining and echoey handclaps for percussion
4) Have some of those parts crescendo then cut off at odd intervals to establish syncopation AND/OR play some of those parts backwards
5) Layer on the distant and unaffected vocals

6) REVERB

7) Wash, rinse, and repeat for the next track. Actually, forget the washing and rinsing. Just repeat.

Now, there is nothing intrinsically incorrect about having a very particular sound for an album. Consistency can be a good thing if it's a sound you enjoy, and you'll notice I mentioned above that I liked the sound of "Ungirthed" quite a bit. But what works for a single 3 minute song may not work over the 11 songs and 40 minutes of an album. Shrines as a whole does not work for me. I was sick of the album before I finished listening to it once, and the last few tracks actively annoyed me.

I got frustrated trying to identify why the record wasn't appealing to me, because there were a lot of things I liked about it. Most of those "steps" I outlined above are textures I enjoyed (aside from the echoey handclaps and REVERB, which truth be told is not as bad as most). I can have a special affectation for cheap electronic sounds in the right context. I like a good chopped-up instrumental portion (sliced-and-diced vocals more so). I think their contrast between dark and light sounds is a good place for a band to explore. But even though I liked those parts of the production, I have to blame the overall production for this album's failings.

Here's the thing: modern pop music relies just as much on its production as on its songwriting. Production is probably more important. Did you know "Call Me Maybe" was originally written as a folk song? Do you think it would have been nearly as successful without its bright, poppy production? I digress a little, but my point is that simple songwriting alone does not an excellent pop album make. It's the arrangements, the structuring, the mixing, the dressing that can transform "your favorite chord progression here" into something stellar.

The songwriting on Shrines strikes me as just dandy. Above average, even. Most of its tracks have at least one really good hook (I'm especially partial to how sexy "Odebear" sounds), and they're all straightforward in construction. Art pop it is not, but that is fine. When production time comes around, I think most albums aim for a balance between making the songs distinguishable while still maintaining a cohesive aesthetic. Trust accomplished that really well earlier this year with their debut TRST. It was clearly indebted to the goth rock and coldwaves of the '80s, but each song had its own personality. Purity Ring's songs are certainly cohesive, but there's so little sonic variety in Shrines that it felt like I was listening to one way-too-long pop song. I'll admit that I'm much more forgiving towards an album whose sound is all over the place versus one which sounds too stagnant, because inconsistency at least points to creativity. Purity Ring feel like a one-trick pony.

I said earlier that I'm more of an album guy than a singles guy, but I think Shrines is best digested as individual singles and not all at once. It has tracks I'll be coming back to ("Ungirthed," "Odebear," "Crawlersout," "Belispeak"), but it's a grating record in its entirety. The tricks I liked are beaten into mundanity, and its flaws become more prominent. By no means is it a terrible album, and if you aren't annoyed by the problems I've outlined you should enjoy it. For me, it's a case where a little variety would have gone a long way. Purity Ring have a unique style, but they manage to make it sound boring.

Score: Strong 5/Lite 6

(Steve Jones is seeking to exchange purity rings with any man or woman who also wishes to maintain the purity of their body's temple in the eyes of the LORD. Interested parties may contact his Twitter @vestenet.)

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VIDEO: Purity Ring - "Fineshrine"

I know Mark has been doing most of the postings on Purity Ring-related matters, but believe it or not I'm also a fan. The Canadian electronic duo released a video for "Fineshrine", one of the most memorable songs off their new record Shrines, and it's definitely worth a look. It's one of the most beautifully filmed music videos I've seen in quite some time, however if I were to describe it to you......well, I wouldn't be able to. Just watch it for yourself. And check out Shrines when it drops on July 24th.



(See? Robby doesn't just like metal. Follow him on Twitter @ClydeNut for more ramblings on music of all kinds.)

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NOTHERN EXPOSURE: Purity Ring

It’s not very often that a band can get me really excited on the basis of only a handful of songs. Austra did it last year before the release of their fantastic album Feel It Break, and this year Purity Ring are doing it this year with the upcoming release of their debut album Shrines. I really think that I'm even more enamoured with Purity Ring this year than I was with Austra last year, and Feel It Break ended up being my number two album of the year, so who knows where Purity Ring’s Shrines might land at the end of this year. Regardless of exactly where, I'm expecting it to be high.

Purity Ring is of course the duo of Megan James and Corin Roddick, who is formerly of the band Gobble Gobble (who now go by the name Born Gold). Purity Ring actually share some similarities with Born Gold, both are in the realm of what you might call “future pop”, however, both bands have very different takes on the genre. While Born Gold goes at an absolutely frenetic pace, Purity Ring appears to have a much more methodical and deliberate delivery to their music.

Describing Purity Ring’s sound is kind of a difficult task for me, but I know that they've created something really unique. It almost reminds me a bit of the self titled release from Zammuto that came out earlier this year. It’s mostly because of the overall choppy feel and pop sensibilities of all the songs that I've heard from Purity Ring so far that I relate them to Zammuto. However, Purity Ring has a much more dark vibe to their music. The haunting down-pitched vocals in the background litter their chopped up and skittery electronics, it just sends chills up my spine sometimes. On top of that Megan James’ voice is so floaty and airy, it only adds to all the creepiness going on.

I do find it kind of weird that a band can garner this my hype around the internet based only off the release of a few singles last year (which were amazing) and a couple of cuts that have been released so far from  Shrines. I guess that really shows the power of the internet. Either way, I think that Purity Ring deserve all of the hype and popularity that they’re getting. It’s always great to hear a band come along who is doing something fresh and exciting. I hope everybody else is as excited to hear their debut album as I am because in this case, I highly doubt the hype machine will disappoint.

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TRACK: Purity Ring - "Fineshrine"

I've already said many times that my most anticipated album for the rest of 2012 is the debut effort from Purity Ring. With the release of their newest track "Fineshrine" from their upcoming album Shrines, I just got even more excited than I already was.

Purity Ring have really developed a unique sound for themselves. All of their songs to date have had a distinct sound with skittery percussion combined with an incredibly choppy feel, along with floaty voice of Megan James. I'm honestly amazed at how incredibly consistent this band has been with all of their releases. Even though they've only released a handful of songs, I don't think they're showing any signs of slowing down at all.

Shrines is available on July 24, 2012 via Lang Gang/4AD. Have a listen to "Fineshrine" down below.

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OPINION: Mark's 2012 Wishlist

I believe I can safely say that 2011 was a great year in music. I discovered a ton of new bands, and ended up really pleased with the releases of some old favourites of mine. Now with 2011 coming to a close I’d just like to take this chance to talk about some of my expectations and wishes for music in 2012.

John K. Samson - Provincial

John K. Samson has been a major force in the Canadian independent music scene for well over a decade now as the front-man of The Weakerthans. Now he’s releasing his first solo album and I’m just as excited for this as I would be for a new record from The Weakerthans. John’s poetic lyrics are one of the characteristics that I feel makes The Weakerthans such a unique band, and I don’t think he’ll just magically lose his songwriting ability for this solo album. Also, based on the tracks to be released from Provincial already, like "When I Write My Masters Thesis", this album is going to rock just as hard as any Weakerthans album from the past.

Plants And Animals - The End Of That

I’ve really taken a shine to these Montreal/Halifax rockers over the past year. I saw them live way back in March and they actually played 6 or 7 new songs during that show, so I knew there would be a new album in the near future. Well, that new album is is called The End Of That and it’s going to be out in February of 2012. Their first album, Parc Avenue, was more of an orchestral rock album, while their sophomore album, La La Land, was more of a straightforward rock album. That makes it tough to know where this band will go with The End Of That but based on the first single, "Lightshow", they’ll be doing something really good.

Islands - A Sleep & A Forgetting

Whenever Nick Thorburn releases a new piece of music I can say for sure that I’ll be listening to it. After all, in my opinion he created one of the best pop albums of the past 10 years with Who Will Cut Our Hair When We’re Gone as part of the Unicorns. Since The Unicorns disbanded, Nick’s main project has been Islands, a band which he has pulled in three very different directions for their three studio albums. Based on the first song "This Is Not A Song" from this latest album to be released on Valentine’s Day, he’s going to go in a new direction once again. At first I wasn't sure about this new song, but I’ve really warmed up to it as of late, so I’m really excited for this album to be released.

Bear In Heaven - I Love You, It’s Cool

This is a band that I first discovered a while ago, but I really only started to listen to them closely over the past few months, and I really like what I’ve been hearing. This Brooklyn-based band make some really cool experimental rock fused with some of the more spacious elements of electronic music, and even some hints of Krautrock. I don’t know a ton about this band at the moment, but I do think that they’re doing something very unique, so I’m excited to see what kind of music comes out of their new album.

So, those are four albums I’m looking forward to that have been confirmed as releases in 2012. Now I'm just going to quickly mention a few things that aren’t confirmed, but should happen in 2012.

PS I Love You - 2nd Studio Album

I know that Paul Saulnier has been writing some new songs, so the wheels for this album are in motion. I just hope it gets released as soon as possible.

Trust - Debut Album

This electronic duo from Toronto really struck me with their first single, "Candy Walls". They’re now signed to Arts & Crafts records with what I would expect is an awesome debut on the way in 2012.

Purity Ring - Debut Album

This is an eccentric electronic duo by way of Edmomnton and Halifax who released some great singles in 2011, like "Belispeak". I can’t wait to hear an album full of their work.

Now, here are some things that I would love to see happen, but I know that they have no chance in hell of ever happening.

- Tegan and Sara proclaim that Tyler, the Creator’s Wolf is the best hip hop album of all time.

- The Unicorns re-form and release an album called We’re Back Because We Needed A Haircut.

- Lana Del Rey becomes horribly disfigured after surgery to permanently apply flowers to her skull goes terribly wrong.

Those are just a few things I’m looking forward to in the coming year. I’m sure I missed quite a few, but I’m really looking forward to 2012 being another awesome year in music!

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