Published by Davide Pappalardo on September 18, 2016
Pure Ground are an American duo, Greh Holger (the owner of Chrondritic sound label) and Jesse Short, hailing from Los Angeles (but originally located in Detroit) dedicated to a minimal industrial / wave sound well rooted in old-school, and strongly influenced by names like Absolute Body Control, The Klinik, Portion Control and Cabaret Voltaire. They are part of the recent L.A based neo-old-school resurgence seeing names like Youth Code, High-Functioning Flesh, 3Teeth and so on, rediscovering the more experimental sounds of the 80’s and early 90’s, adapting them to our current world with a poliedric syncretism where industrial, minimal wave, post punk, coldwave, and many other styles are merged in an underground movement interested in reclaiming the roots of D.I.Y analogic “punk” (in a wielder sense) music.
We already reviewed their full length debut called Standard of living, a love letter to the style crafted by Dirk Ivens during the 80’s and early 90’s with different monickers, as well as to the already cited British pioneers and the sound of early Front 242, but with a strong taste for almost Gothic, melancholic minimal synth melodies. Now we are going to talk about their highly anticipated sophomore album Giftgarten, licensed by Chrondritic sound itself as a vinyl, available in Europe via Italian label Avant!, and as a CD via Sleepless Records Berlin; a work which improves upon and perfects the sounds characterizing Pure Ground style, this time showing an edgier and darker sound, where the noisier experiments of their singles Crawling through / Evaporation and The arsonist / And so remain, and the more bare sound of the EPs Daylight and Protection are linked with their current approach.
The result is a dirtier post punk and noise influenced direction, where we are at times reminded of Dive (another incarnation of Ivens), but generally showing a progression towards a more personal identity and a harsher vision which grit is well reflected in their lyrics full of existential nihilism and their Gothic, black and white imaginary. A caustic, but listenable sound, with bare-bones rhythms and creepy synths which crawl while a voice full of effects declaims its dark lessons.
If No passage offers us a minimal, slow death-disco movement full of swampy atmospheres developed by sinister synths and a monotone drum machine hypnotizing us with its black mantra, The great becoming shows a less human, almost robotic, approach, were filtered vocals and machine-like sounds dominate the apocalyptic scenario here conjured, an homage to the more experimental side of 80’s electro-punk recalling early Cabs.
The silent age is a minimal piece with a strong taste for minimal synth inputs and cold, obsessive rhythmic crescendos, a funereal version of the darker side of techno pop, while Still doesn’t shy away from The Klinik influence, fully embracing it both in music and vocal delivery, a track which could have been lifted directly from works like Sabotage or Fever; By the grace of god goes back to proto-EBM sounds, where melodramatic minimal melodies are not estranged, and the closing number Flood is an almost danceable electro-punk pastiche ala Portion Control full of retro-futuristic sounds.
Someone will maybe miss the easier and more melodic approach of the debut, but the truth is that now we have a more mature and subtler songwriting, with a coherent internal vision, where music and themes are one and the same, reaching an artistic integrity in sound and aesthetics. While many bands are fusing the post punk influence with a more techno oriented sound (with amazing results most of the times, it should be said), Pure Ground prefers an archeological, but not onanistic, approach with controlled bpm and slow and crawling minimal dark numbers; we hope this is just a start for greater things to come.
Label: Chrodritic sound / Sleepless Records / Avant! records
Rating: 8