Purity Ring - Doldrums -- Black Cat - Nov 9 2011

Doldrums - I decided to take the road less traveled tonight and hit some electronica acts at the backstage of the Black Cat. First up is a Canadian guy with a sampler/electronics board and a microphone. I enjoy the opening souds which are spacey and filled with chants before some real intensity sets in. More pop moves and even some tropicalia beats and sounds sneak in as it gets a bit more dance oriented. But sonic strength seems to dominate more than dance beats. The vocals are good--real waif like singing with pop hooks but a subtle edge much of the time. Between the vocals and the crunching sounds, this interests me a lot more than DJ styled dance grooves. And there was not much dancing going on but the really large crowd clearly enjoyed this. I cannot pretend to be an expert in this genre, but I knows whats I like and I like this just fine.

Purity Ring - This appears to be a project of Megan James of Gobble Gobble. She is the singer in the picture above and is accompanied by a guy I presume is Corrin Roddick from that same band (again, my knowledge is slight and research limited). He handles all the samples and beats and she focuses on the vocals. And once again it is the vocal quality that creates the originality and interest for me. If anything, the music is pretty basic and does not offer a lot of variety in the sound. Although the variety in the types of songs more than makes up for the sonic steadiness. They go from icy pop to brighter numbers with ease. There are some gutsy songs at the end that change both tempo and mood, while James' Toyah Wilcox type voice stays strong in directing the songs forward. They are at the end of a long tour and still delivered a great half-hour set. The crowd loved it and was only disappointed when they came back and said they could not encore as that is all they had set. Ah, now there is a time where sampling can't replace the live guys. But as long as there is this kind of originality and quality vocal work, I may yet be seeing more of these electronica bands.

Quote of the Night: From the opener... This kind of music is popular in Canada, I swear."