Dave Simpson 

Purity Ring: Shrines – review

Montreal duo Purity Ring match synth-pop swirls with oddly catchy tunes, and deliver them with a joyous glee, writes Dave Simpson
  
  


In this Montreal indie electro duo, Megan James sings while Corin Roddick plays an instrument shaped like a tree of lights. The latter is an appropriate metaphor for their eccentric, fairytale world, which mixes 80s synthesiser pop swirls with plinky-plonky beats, shimmering, ghostly textures and odd but catchy tunes. Like 4AD predecessor Elizabeth Fraser of the Cocteau Twins, James appears to have crafted her own language in songs given titles such as Lofticries and Belispeak. Listen closely and it makes sense: Crawlersout ("they'll sew their own hands into their beds and keep the crawlers out") seems to be a chirpy anthem about arachnophobia. In Ungirthed, we're told how "prostrate men … illuminate the worlds of the ghosts" over tunes which are like weird distortions of mainstream pop songs. The sumptuous, Young Magic-sampling Grandloves could be a distant relative of Art of Noise's Madonna-favoured Moments in Love. Whatever it all means, it's delivered with a joyous glee, and anyone searching for a more electro-based companion to Grimes' Visions need look no further.

 

Leave a Comment

Required fields are marked *

*

*