Pure is Austrian born and Berlin based Peter Votava, who stepped into the music business somewhere in the beginning of the nineties. Since then, he has released many CD’s and 12†vinyls – his roots actually lie in DJ culture and as such he has established himself already in the hardcore/techno scene. In the mid nineties he was also half of Rave party darlings Ilsa Gold, but nowadays Pure concentrates on the more experimental side of the sound spectrum. A path that culminated in a collaboration with Austrian artist Erich Berger, in 2006. As Terminal Beach they presented their audiovisual performance The Heart Chamber Orchestra: a piece for orchestra (12 musicians equipped with ECG sensors) that uses the musicians’ heartbeats to form a computer generated score for the orchestra in real time (and a visual environment along the way). Besides all this, Pure also continued to produce his solo works. Ification, which is out now on the Portugese Crónica label, is his latest offering.
Ification counts 7 tracks and starts off with an intro titled FIRE. At first I wasn’t too sure what to think of this track: its necessity went beyond me and the mention that Atari Teenage Rioteer Christoph De Babalon delivered the guitar recording didn’t impress me either. After reading Vital Weekly’s verdict on the record it does seem to make a bit more sense: it’s abrasive shreds of distorted guitar assault do indeed pave the way for the audible contemplation presented in the second track (AFTER THE BOMB). As if the shells dropped from my ears.
From here on, Pure presents us more explorations into the dark and gloomy regions of sound. APPROXIMATION has a certain bombastique that reminds me of Wagner. Not only because of the slowed down horns: the whole track seems to be composed on a skeleton that indicates a classical approach. Well and successfully executed I’d might say, making it one of the best tracks off the album.
I think the only disappointment here is SONOMATOPEIA. Alexandra von Bolzn’s vocal contributions, or Pure’s processions thereof, do not really have the ability to bleak out William Bennett’s or Kevin Tomkins’ contributions to the Power Electronics genre – although the press release tends to make you believe otherwise. And might I add: a tad bit too much BBC sound effects on display? Well, at least according to my taste that is.
Anyhow, with Ification, Pure delivered another great collection of tracks that soothingly resonate inside your skull. Purification of the soul? I’ll let you decide on the supine ending.
via Earlabs