https://www.high-endrolex.com/18

Purson Announce Final Single and Breakup

Posted in Whathaveyou on April 27th, 2017 by JJ Koczan

If you’re thinking the demise of Purson is the last we’re likely to hear from guitarist/vocalist Rosalie Cunningham, I’ll just say that seems deeply unlikely. Though the London-based psych rock outfit released what has now become their swansong full-length in last year’s Desire’s Magic Theatre (discussed here), the fact that they’re not even able to break up without putting out a new single speaks to a desire on the part of Cunningham to keep things going. And she’s not the only one. Guitarist George Hudson premiered a new project called Flare Voyant in London last weekend, so things are already afoot in the Purson aftermath, and that only seems likely to continue as the rest of 2017 plays out into the unknown beyond.

For now though, kind of a bummer to lose Purson, because while a primary part of their expression was always their hyperstylization, they were also legit songwriters. Their last single, “Chocolate Money,” is out now through Spinefarm, as the PR wire informs:

purson photo peter brenchley

PURSON RELEASE FINAL SINGLE “CHOCOLATE MONEY”

BAND CONFIRMS DECEMBER 2016 LONDON SHOW WAS ITS LAST

“FAREWELL” SINGLE SET FOR RELEASE VIA SPINEFARM RECORDS AS SINGER/SONGWRITER/GUITARIST ROSALIE CUNNINGHAM PLANS NEXT MUSICAL MOVE

PURSON are officially no more.

After a career spanning five years, two studio albums, one EP, a number of singles and videos, plus live shows and festivals in both Europe and America, including a full U.S. run guesting with Ghost, the acclaimed, award-winning, ever-flamboyant UK outfit have decided to call a halt to proceedings.

Singer and guitarist Rosalie Cunningham, the creative force behind the project and the one who provided both the songs and the vision while playing most of the instruments in the studio, had this to say about Purson’s split.

“The past five years have been an unforgettable whirlwind, for which I have to thank our wonderful fans around the world, the band, and all the people who have contributed to Purson’s success over the years. Their support has been overwhelming, but the Purson framework has gone as far as it could go, and now it’s simply time to move on. I feel strongly drawn to a more DIY approach to my career in music, and look forward to the freedom to explore many avenues as a solo artist.”

As a way of going out with a (glam rock) bang, Spinefarm Records released a farewell Purson single on April 21.

“Chocolate Money” was and produced and mixed by Cunningham and John Mitchell (Steven Wilson, It Bites). The song features guest contributions from Jon Seagroatt (Comus) on saxophone and Vodun frontwoman Chantelle Brown on backing vocals. It also boasts wickedly tongue-in-cheek lyrics, taking in “cocoa casanova,” “raison d’etre cake,” and more. The song joyfully celebrates an era when bands like Slade and Wizard ruled the charts, Top of the Pops was essential viewing and vinyl was king.

“‘Chocolate Money’ is a snapshot of the ostentatious decadence of the ’70s,” said Cunningham. “The mythical rock star character with his double-entendre and self-centred hedonism. The industry has become a very different world since then, which is something I will expand on lyrically with my next album. It has inspired my desire to go back to basics and remember what music is supposed to be about.”

“Chocolate Money” does not live on Purson’s last album Desire’s Magic Theatre, which is out now.

https://www.facebook.com/pursontheband/
http://purson.tmstor.es/
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/chocolate-money-single/id1225790684
https://www.facebook.com/spinefarm
https://twitter.com/spinefarm
http://www.spinefarmrecords.com/usa/

Purson, “The Window Cleaner” official video

Tags: , , , , ,

Desertfest Belgium 2016: Graveyard Announced as Final Headliner; Purson, Moaning Cities and More Added

Posted in Whathaveyou on August 23rd, 2016 by JJ Koczan

Goodness gracious. Desertfest Belgium 2016 continues to up its stakes. I don’t know if this is the final lineup announcement, but Graveyard would definitely seem to be the final of the three headliners — they join Red Fang and Goat in doing the honors — and the Swedish retro rock trailblazers top a whole list of new lineup additions, from native Belgian groups like Moaning Cities and Dorre to UK psychedelic classicists Purson. If this is the end of Desertfest Belgium’s lineup — if it’s actually complete at this point — it’s already an impressively packed bill, but I’m not at all convinced the fest doesn’t have more tricks up its sleeve. Guess we’ll see as we get closer to October.

From the PR wire:

desertfest belgium 2016 last poster

GRAVEYARD is the last headliner at DESERTFEST ANTWERP 2016

So here it is – the last headliner announcement! We’re relieved to finally reveal that the mighty GRAVEYARD will be headlining the 2016 edition of Desertfest Antwerp.
Joining them we have the last few names to complete the line-up: the proggy witchcraft of Purson, the equally mysterious Josefin Öhrn and the sludgers from Berlin, Earth Ship. We’re also proud to welcome Belgian sleaze legends La Muerte to our stage, as well as some Belgian heavy mainstays Toxic Shock and Moaning Cities. Finally, local young talent Black Mirrors and Dorre will get a chance to prove themselves on the Desertfest Stage.

Unfortunately, there’s also some bad news with the good: John Garcia has cancelled his European fall tour for personal reasons and will not be performing at the festival.

So now that’s it, get running for the earlybird priced tickets because in about a week, we will announce day tickets and prices will raise to regular!

GRAVEYARD

The unique psychedelic metal of Graveyard is rooted in the 70s heydays of Led Zep and Sabbath, but the success of Gothenburg’s hard rocking quartet lies in the timeless quality they bring to their riffage. We feel honoured and blessed that their steady climb through the Ranks of Rock’n’Roll now brings them to the Desertfest stage as a headliner.

PURSON

Rosalie Cunningham describes her band as “vaudeville carny psych”. Weaving together influences ranging from Cream to Deep Purple to Jethro Tull, Purson serves up a quasi-mystical pastiche of psychedelic wonder made up of fuzzed-out guitars and Wurlitzer organs. In 2016, the band released their sophomore outing, Desire’s Magic Theatre to much acclaim.

JOSEFIN ÖHRN

Josefin Öhrn and The Liberation combine a retro-chic pop sensibility with 60s psychedelia and krautrock, creating a heady mix that is all their own. The focal point is the enchanting Josefin, who radiates the aura of a lurking spirit, playfully coaxing the listener to embrace a deeper plane of consciousness.

EARTH SHIP

Behold the power of the riff in all shapes and sizes! It would be a serious understatement to simply lump Earth Ship in with the rest of the sludge rock genre. On their recent release ‘Hollowed’, these Berlins once more gracefully tackle the soft yet stronger dynamic of bands like Kylesa and Crowbar with morbid melodies that would make Alice In Chains proud.

LA MUERTE

Fuelled by vitriol, compared to such legendary gutter-dwelling sleaze-merchants as The Birthday Party, Foetus, and The Stooges, La Muerte has become a standard reference when it comes to Belgium‘s underground rock scene. Throughout the 80s and early 90s they released a string of cult-albums and EP’s which heavily resonated with those abandoned by love or devoid of hope.

MOANING CITIES

A psychedelic rock’n’roll band from Brussels blending blues roots, fuzz guitars and oriental psychedelia. Featuring a female powerduo on drums and bass, their sitar-driven groove comes into its own on the new upcoming album ‘D. Klein’.

TOXIC SHOCK

Belgian crossover thrash metal hardcore, influenced by the eighties Venice bands, Slayer, old Metallica and NYHC. Played their first show in 2011 with Black Breath, and since then played shows with Exodus, Cro-Mags, Power Trip, AF, Suicidal Tendencies, and many other trash legends.

BLACK MIRRORS

From Blues Garage Rock to Janis Joplin, with a melodic grace sustained through Qeens Of The Stone Age rythms, Black Mirrors seems to appear between shamanic evocations and spooky representations, in search of a tradition buried in the volcanic foldings of the earth.

DORRE

Dorre was born at the Rock Café in Leuven Belgium, serving up a cohesion of doom, noise, psychedelic rock, blues and stoner in long organic pieces.

https://www.facebook.com/desertfestbelgium/
https://twitter.com/desertfestBE
https://www.facebook.com/events/488174281372335/
http://www.desertfest.be/tickets

Graveyard, “Too Much is Not Enough” official video

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Purson Post “The Window Cleaner” Video; Desire’s Magic Theatre out Now

Posted in Bootleg Theater on June 1st, 2016 by JJ Koczan

purson

UK classic psychedelic rockers Purson — and I mean ‘UK’ both in terms of where they’re from and the particular classic psychedelia from which they draw — just recently finished up a US tour supporting their new album, Desire’s Magic Theatre, which came out at the end of April via Spinefarm Records. Their new video for “The Window Cleaner” from that album takes performance footage, presumably from earlier or otherwise recorded for the purpose of the clip itself, and psychs it up with ’60s-looking cartoon mermaids and lighting effects, in case the mellotrons, gorgeous harmonies and maddeningly efficient songwriting weren’t enough to get the vintage point across.

Whatever, it all works. Purson made their debut in 2013 with The Circle and the Blue Door via Rise Above/Metal Blade and received due praise for their stylistic loyalty and otherworldly vibe. What I think “The Window Cleaner” emphasizes well is the songcraft that backs up the aesthetic accomplishment. Not a second of the track’s crisp three-and-a-half-minute runtime is misspent, and yet it in no way feels rigid or overly wrought. It flows easily and fluidly, and keeps a sense of motion without coming across as rushed. It’s in finding that balance that Purson outdo many of their backwards-through-time-looking peers, but of course a mellotron never hurts either.

Rosalie Cunningham (vocals/guitar) offers some comment on the track and the album as a whole under the video below.

Please enjoy:

Purson, “The Window Cleaner” official video

Vocalist/guitarist Rosalie Cunningham said, “The songs on Desire’s Magic Theatre are very personal, like a diary. They tend to be about the psychedelic experience, something that’s been important to me since my teenage years, figuring out my own sense of spirituality, and ‘The Window Cleaner’ is a prime example.”

She continued, “I’d been up all night at a party, and I wasn’t really enjoying myself. It was all quite seedy. So in the morning, I went to the park with a friend to do some mushrooms. Afterwards, everything had become so beautiful that I went home and demo’d up the song in a couple of hours, and the album version is pretty much the same as that first demo. I think the video is a good representation of where the song sprang from.”

Desire’s Magic Theatre draws inspiration from the rock operas of the late ’60s and early ’70s. This 10-track outing sees the UK group touching on a variety of realms, including folk, prog, psychedelic, gothic, and classic rock, making telling use of classical instruments and complex arrangements along the way.

Purson on Thee Facebooks

Purson webstore

Spinefarm Records on Thee Facebooks

Spinefarm Records website

Tags: , , , , ,

Purson Sign to Spinefarm Records

Posted in Whathaveyou on March 26th, 2015 by JJ Koczan

Stylish UK outfit Purson issued their In the Meantime EP late last year as a stopgap to help keep the momentum going that they’d built over the couple years prior leading up to the 2013 release of their debut full-length, The Circle and the Blue Door, on Rise Above. That album, remarkably well-received, springboarded them to a wider public consciousness, and with signing to Spinefarm Records and working toward completing their sophomore LP, Desire’s Magic Theatre, they’ll look to continue winning converts to their classically cultish rock (or is it their classically rockish cult?) with a new release hopefully later in 2015.

The PR wire brings reason for anticipation:

purson

PURSON Sign Worldwide Deal With SPINEFARM RECORDS

Second Album, Desire’s Magic Theatre, Nearing Completion

Download Appearance Confirmed!

PURSON have joined forces with Spinefarm Records for a worldwide deal that will see their second studio album, Desire’s Magic Theatre, released this autumn in the wake of a number of high-profile festivals and shows, including Download in the UK.

The UK outfit, whose music touches a variety of realms, including folk, prog, psychedelic, gothic and classic rock, blending other-worldly romance with shadowy foreboding are currently in the studio putting the finishing touches to Desire’s Magic Theatre, which will be released under the Spinefarm/Machine Elf Records banner.

Says singer/guitarist/songwriter Rosalie Cunningham, “As I sit here in the control room at Gizzard Studios, the pride of East London, I’m excitedly realizing that our second album has turned out to be everything I’d imagined and more! My world has been so consumed by it that I’ve barely been able to reflect on what it has become: a technicolor variety show, a playful display of the musical whims only briefly hinted at in our previous work; a psychedelic rock opera dedicated to our good friends Sarge Pepper and Zig Stardust.”

She continues, “The twists in the tale have been carved out by the path we’ve taken over the last 12 months. It’s been constantly shape-shifting and developing with all the wonderful experiences we’ve had.On behalf of the band, I give thanks to everyone who has bought a PURSON record and been to our shows. Your continued support means everything… and you have our promise that the best is yet to come…”

Says Spinefarm Records General Manager UK, Dante Bonutto, “I’ve been following PURSON since the early days of their career, and I’ve always considered the band something special; I like their vision, their theatricality, and their refusal to be corralled by a single musical genre. PURSON really do have an expansive approach to their craft, and as a song-writer, Rosalie is a unique talent on the rise. In all ways, their future is bright, and I’m delighted that Spinefarm and PURSON have now forged this fresh alliance…”

PURSON are also thrilled to confirm an appearance at this year’s Download Festival, playing live on the hallowed ground of Donington Park for the first time.

The band-Cunningham, George Hudson (guitars), Justin Smith (bass), and Sam Shove (keyboards)- will once again meet up with KISS at Download, having opened for them on last year’s KISS Kruise.

PURSON also rounded off 2014 with a nomination in the “Limelight” category for new and emerging talent at the Classic Prog Awards. They also released the four-track In the Meantime EP, mastered by John Davis from Metropolis (Zeppelin, U2, Lana Del Rey) in November.

https://www.facebook.com/pursontheband
https://twitter.com/_purson
http://www.purson.co.uk/
http://www.spinefarmrecords.com/

Purson, The Circle and the Blue Door (2013)

Tags: , , , ,

Extolling Ignorance: The Top 10 Albums I Didn’t Hear in 2013

Posted in Features on January 6th, 2014 by JJ Koczan

Some of these, I just don’t have an excuse. Others, I have an excuse but it’s pretty lame. The basic fact of the matter is that the recently-departed 2013 brought an onslaught of gotta-hear-it-gotta-get-it records and I don’t care if it’s your full-time job and you actually get paid to do it, there’s no way you heard it all. I know I certainly didn’t.

I’m only one dude. I sit in front of this keyboard more or less all day, Monday to Friday each week, and I think the volume of output from this site and the fact that it’s just me (Hi, my name is JJ) putting it out speak for themselves. Maybe they don’t and that’s why I feel compelled to say it. Whatever.

Point is I do the best I can, but whether it’s my general and increasingly visceral disdain for digital promos or not being cool enough to be on somebody’s radar — or hell, even just the time factor, as in “there’s only so much of it” — some probably-killer stuff just slipped through the cracks. This list is me apologizing for not being everywhere at once and for having a limited record-buying budget. Again, I do the best I can.

List is alphabetical because it’s not like I can really rank them. Here goes:

1. Carcass, Surgical Steel

Man, Carcass kick ass. I know their early stuff is grind gospel, but even their last two records, 1993’s Heartwork and 1996’s Swansong, are fantastic. Why the hell wouldn’t I want to get on board with a new Carcass album? I don’t know. I guess I didn’t want to download it, like it a lot, put time into reviewing it and then go out and have to buy it like a punk. Easier not to listen, so that’s what I did. Carcass on Thee Facebooks.

2. Carlton Melton, Always Even


When Carlton Melton got added to Roadburn 2014, I took a sampling of their wares and it sounded like really interesting stuff. Synth-driven kraut-psych with a touch of West Coast spaceout gets a hearty “right on” in my book. Mostly a budget concern as to why I didn’t dig further. I could’ve YouTube’d it, but that’s no way to get to know an album if you’re actually interested in listening to music. Carlton Melton’s website.

3. Causa Sui, Euporie Tide

I was actually given this as an Xmas present after having it on my Amazon wishlist and it’s fucking fantastic. Really, really, really good. I imagine at some point I’ll probably put together a Buried Treasure post that more or less touts the virtues of Euporie Tide‘s desert tones and progressive explorations, but I didn’t get there before the end of 2013, so here it is anyway. But seriously, wow. El Paraiso Records on Thee Facebooks.

4. Deafheaven, Sunbather

There was so much hype around Deafheaven‘s Sunbather that I was just completely turned off. Not much more to it than that. I probably could’ve chased down a promo download if I’d been so inclined, but what’s the point? The whole world’s already up its ass, I’d rather spend my limited-as-hell time not adding my voice to a chorus of hyperbole. Maybe it’s really cool. Okay. Deafheaven on Bandcamp.

5. Fuzz, Fuzz

In a bizarre twist, turns out I have heard Fuzz‘s Fuzz, the self-titled heavy psych debut from indie darling Ty Segall. It’s the reason I wound up ending last week with the Witch self-titled, because I think the two albums work in a very similar fashion. Cool release either way, something like a dirtier Radio Moscow. I probably won’t review it at this point, but it’s on my shopping list for next time I happen to have two cents to my name. Ty Segall on Thee Facebooks.

6. Ghost, Infestissumam

The single most misspelled title in the Readers Poll. My feeling on Ghost at this point is as follows: “Yeah, so?” You’re a costumed pop-cult act with insanely catchy songs and a massive promotional machine behind you. So what? I wound up ambivalent about the first Ghost album and I guess when it came to this there wasn’t anything Ghost was going to deliver that I couldn’t get in a more substantive package from Uncle Acid. Ghost’s website.

7. Grayceon, Pearl and the End of Days

If there’s anything on this list that I’m actually pissed off at myself for not having heard, it’s probably Grayceon‘s Pearl and the End of Days. Technically it’s an EP and this is a list of albums, but either way, I wound up loving their 2011 full-length, All We Destroy (unabashed fawning here), so I can only consider missing the subsequent release the result of some deep-seated character flaw on my part. It came out in February! I had all year! What a jerk.

8. Mammatus, Heady Mental

Didn’t even know this one existed until Spiritual Pajamas put it out in November. Nobody told me, and I guess it had been a while since I last checked in on the Santa Cruz County space jammers to see about a follow-up to 2007’s The Coast Explodes. Still hope to hear Heady Mental at some point. The sooner the better, since it’s another band whose work I’ve legitimately enjoyed in the past. Mammatus on Thee Faceboooks.

9. Purson, The Circle and the Blue Door

No question Rise Above puts out some of the best underground heavy the world over. Not an issue that’s up for debate at this point, and they’ve found a decent niche to mine through with cult rock that seems to resonate with their audience. All well and good. I guess when it came to Purson, everything was just a little too perfect, just a little too aligned for me to be interested. Maybe I’ll stumble on it at some point and regret having passed it up initially. Purson on Thee Facebooks.

10. True Widow, Circumambulation

Circumambulation is the same story as a lot of these. I had promo mp3s and they just sat there. If I’ve got people in Japan and Australia who are willing to mail me a CD or LP out of their own pocket, I have a hard time arguing with myself as to why I should bother with others who don’t care enough about my opinion to send the work they want to have evaluated. If I’ve missed out on good music in the process, well, I’m still alive,which is more than I can say for the fucking music industry. True Widow on Bandcamp.

There we have it. If there’s a takeaway from all of this downer cynicism, it’s how unbearably lucky we are to live in an age where (one) I could immediately access the music on any one of these albums if I really wanted to or immediately shell out for hard copies if I had the funds. I know I really missed out on some of these, but it’s also worth pointing out just how many incredible albums are out there that I could let some of these pass and still live with myself.

This is the last of the 2013 wrap-ups, so thanks for checking it all out.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,