- Stunning ambient music grounded in discrete texture and graceful rhythm.
- On Signs, Purelink make rhythmic ambient music that doesn't so much pulsate as it shimmers, melts and then hardens. The textures the so-called "ambient boy band" conjure up in their three-way improvisations are more substantial than the gaseous swell of dub techno and its offshoots, touching on the woolliest of '90s downtempo. But here, on their new record for Peak Oil, they shift their eyes and ears to the clicks and cuts of early '00s experimental electronics. The difference is that the music Concave Reflection, Kindtree and Millia Rage make together is tougher, with heavier bass and a more graceful swing. Case in point: the ghostly waltz of "4K Murmurs," where the central chord progression moves almost imperceptibly. It's loose and meandering, swaddling the listener in sound, but the warm bassline—and what sounds like little tickles of piano or guitar—keep things grounded.
It's that mixture of floatation-tank escapism and club-ready sound design that makes Purelink meatier than most comparable acts. The burly, elbowing bass on opener "In Circuits" sets up the rest of the album, the fulsome thrum a welcome contrast to the chrome-plated, diamond-hard pads that dot the otherwise glitchy, microscopic landscape. It's like if an old Vladislav Delay track grew an exoskeleton. "Stadium Drive" is similarly weighty despite being one of the album's most straightforwardly ambient tracks, yawning to life as a New Age jam before collecting itself into broken techno, one limb at a time.
The trio's approach to composition is their other secret weapon. However much they plan out their tracks—judging from their live performances, I'd wager it's heavily improvisational—they tend to build each one beautifully, carefully adding elements so that sometimes they end up in a place unrecognizable compared to where they started. On "Pinned," where the pads shift tones with the jarring click of a twisting kaleidoscope, you might easily settle into the trio's patient broken techno. But with time, the beat slowly dismantles, and snatches of vocal ring out in the distance, adding an eerie sense of organic decay to the group's otherwise antiseptic, metallic textures.
It's moments like these—subtle, unsettling—that make Signs feel like a cut above for the trio, a new gold standard. Past releases for labels like uWu dust bath and NAFF featured wonderful, ambient-rooted genre exercises in jungle, downtempo and more. On Signs, the sounds simply hang in the air, with melodies forming like clouds and rhythms condensing like raindrops.
Tracklist01. In Circuits
02. 4K Murmurs feat. J
03. Stadium Drive
04. Pinned
05. Untitled
06. We Should Keep Going