Pure Reason Revolution

It's often worrying when you hear a rock band who obviously spend a lot of time and effort producing their records. The songs sound great on CD, but for me it conjures up an image of the group, standing post recording, trying to think of how the hell they are going to produce this sound they’ve just made in a live environment. A lot of bands, depressingly, opt for having most of the interesting sounds coming pre-recorded from a laptop, so the only skill it implies is whether or not any of the band members can muster the strength to press 'play' at the right time. Thankfully Pure Reason Revolution have more to them than that. A lot more.

Initially I was taken aback by the overall sound of them. The psychedelically winding guitar work, building to euphoric heights of layered synth and even more layered vocals. Oh! the vocals! Nearly all of sort-of-frontman Jon Courtney’s vocals are harmonised with bass wizard (or should it be witch?) Chloé Alper's, sometimes being joined by the guitarist Jamie Willcox to a potent and hypnotic effect. 'The Bright Ambassadors of Morning' had some of the most impressive examples of this. The music cuts out to Jon repeating the main title lyrics, meanwhile the other two are slowly layering their own voices into the mix with various "oooo aaaahs" (it sounds cheesy on paper but it just isn't) and more lyrics, building a grand canyon of sonic depth that lulls you into a stupor, only to have them smash it with the songs hard hitting crescendo. Something I presumed was a sign of over production turned out to be just as integral to the live show and beautifully executed.

After it sunk in that these sounds were coming from circuit board-less organic creatures, how tight the band were - and had to be - came sharply into focus. In 'Victorious Cupid', for example, they flit from one rhythm to another throughout, not one of the instruments (not even Paul Glover's drums) retained any continuity by which the others could keep in time. They just changed from one idea to another propelled only by their inner sense of rhythm. Even at the beginning of 'The Bright Ambassadors of Morning' when Jamie's high E snapped he quickly grabbed his other guitar from the very efficient roadie, barely having time to tune half of the strings before he had to start playing, which he did anyway, snatching time where he could to tune the rest of his guitar.

Enough of how they played; what they played is worth a few words as well. They drew a lot of their set from the recently released 'Amor Vincit Omnia', 'Deus ex Machina' getting an enthusiastic reaction considering it would have been the first time many of the crowd had heard it. The steady marching beat riddled with croaking synth giving way to an air strike of heavy riffage provoked some slightly off putting, but well meaning, dancing from some of the more inebriated in the crowd. 'The Gloaming', in contrast didn't do much to provoke anything, its repetitiveness made very obvious by the focus of a live show. But this was a single bad apple amongst a whole tree of blushing ripe jewels, including (I was glad to hear) a lot of great songs from their previous album 'The Dark Third'.

All the faces I saw leaving Manchester's MoHo Live, or making there way to the merchandise stand where the band were signing, were grinning wide, having witnessed a truly stimulating performance.

FUTURE GIGS