Electronic music is inherently hard to make interesting in a live setting. In a rock show, you’ve got several instruments to watch to keep things interesting. Rappers use charisma and crowd participation to create an enjoyable experience for concertgoers. But the instruments at electronic shows are MacBooks and MPCs, and in order to keep those toys pumping out beats, performers often need to bury their heads in glowing screens and spinning knobs. It’s an effective strategy for music making, but hardly a visual stimulant.
Of course, not all kinds of electronic music suffer this fate. Dubsteppers gather at shows for one distinct purpose, to dance. Although artists like DatsiK (QRO live review) and deadmau5 (QRO live review) bring impressive light shows and elaborate turntable set-ups, people aren’t there to watch the show, they’re there to grind on their neighbor until clothes start to fall off. But what about other factions of electronica? Artists whose music, although certainly dance-worthy, doesn’t have the sole purpose of inciting sweaty writhing? That’s the category in which Purity Ring resides, a terrifying limbo between EDM and chillwave. Somewhere adrift of house, but not within sight of indie-rock, and with only fleeting memories of hip-hop. Sure, you can dance to “Ungirthed”, but that’s not the reason you’re listening to it.
What then would make a Purity Ring show entertaining, aside from that the duo makes some of the catchiest, bassiest, electronic music around? QRO got a chance to catch their show at the Granada in Lawrence, Kansas on Sunday night, April 7th, and the duo of Corrin Roddick and Megan James may have figured it out.
When the two came out on stage, Roddick, who handles the electronic part of the band, whipped a black sheet off what looked to be a medium stack of keyboards to reveal what looked like several papier-mâché light bulbs set at different heights. These mothball-like objects were about the size of a fist, and were surrounding his MPC setup on the table. As the first electronic gurglings of the set began to creep from the speakers, Roddick picked up a mallet and began playing those papier-mâché light bulbs like a mothball xylophone. They lit up when they were hit, and acted like an extension of his electronic music making set up. Depending on the song, they would produce chimes, or bass, normally whatever was most prominent and allowed for the most use throughout the song. They were really, really cool. In fact, they were so cool that one didn’t even notice that Megan James had taken the stage and was singing in her siren-like manner. That electronic mothball xylophone had captured my attention so well that one hadn’t even noticed her arrival through the billows of fog that filled the stage. Above the duo hung about 17 paper lanterns. The lanterns lit up and changed colors, dancing with the music, shining through the fog like a lantern on a dock in the middle of the night.
It was a surreal experience that made one forget that the lion’s share of the sounds that made up the music being played were likely prerecorded loops. It’s just the nature of Purity Ring’s music. There’s too much going on for Roddick to handle it all himself in real time. James handled the vocals, and a few times came over for a duet on the magical musical mothball xylophone, but for the most part, the beats are the sole product of Roddick at his little music production station, surrounded by those light up mothballs.
Which raises the question: How much of the show really is being produced in real time? Is Roddick building the skeleton of the beats and letting the pre-recorded items fill in the empty space? Is it the other way around? Are those light up mothballs even producing sound? Or is it just an elaborate and well-timed routine that involves pressing play and turning knobs at the right time? As interesting as it would be to know the answers to those questions, it isn’t integral to the experience of enjoying the show. Why take the magic away from it all? Remember how disappointed you were the first time you watched the Wizard of Oz, when the curtain was pulled back and it turned out the Wizard was really just a man with a megaphone. Why ruin it? So what if those mothballs are less modded-MIDI-controller and more fancy light show? If Roddick can manage to synchronize all that with what’s going on in the music, is that somehow less impressive? If the Wizard of Oz can still get you home on his hot air balloon, it doesn’t matter that there isn’t really any magic involved.
It doesn’t matter how Roddick and James create the aura that lingers on the smoke at their show, what matters is that you can feel that aura, and that they capture your attention from start to finish. Purity Ring’s special blend of hip-hop beats, toned down vocals and wandering vocals captures the ears and will not let go. Stop thinking about it and let their live show do the same.
