The Answer Is In The Beat

Pure Rave megapost

November 12, 2020 at 8:07 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Detroit collective Pure Rave make oblong rhythmic improvisation collages using multiple turntables, prepared records, effects, and drum machines. They were basically the house band at the Trip Metal Fests a few years ago, and while they seem perfectly fitting within that context, they’re highly confounding outside of it. One of the members once told me about the time they spun in between sets when Yellowman played at El Club, and angry patrons were all “We paid to hear reggae music tonight!”, and they still weren’t feeling it when the DJs played a Scientist record instead. Anyway, Pure Rave recently put a few things up on Bandcamp, starting with a live gig at Donovan’s Pub from earlier this year which featured Cy Tulip and Dave Shettler on Modular Synth. Basically, they recorded a multi-hour session, cut it into chunks, titled them, and arranged them in mostly alphabetical order, so some bits re-emerge at different parts of the album, making it more indeterminate than it already would be. Throughout the album you hear old techno, house, reggae, jazz, and R&B records hobbling in circles, sometimes creating counterrhythms when the records skip. At some points, they’ll just happen upon a perfect vocal/beat sample loop and just go to town with it, dousing it with echo and effects — try not to smile during “Meowdular RnB”. The sequence of “Trip” tracks (and really any other ones that sound like hybrid genres) all point to possible new directions for a successor to Trip Metal, further applying the already limitless concept to other corners of the musical map.
A much more concentrated burst of Pure Rave NRG was released on cassette and Bandcamp by Nostilevo. № 113 is 24 minutes of electro claptrap broken breakdance, convoluted tekno acid bells, and a welcome burst of technofied African Head Charge. The B-side is a freewheeling, head-spinning highlight which starts to feel like it’s digesting itself after a while, before youthful voices clamber out, and then it flows into trip rave mode.
Additionally, Pure Rave were handed two copies of DC noise-rap duo Model Home‘s One Year record on Disciples, and the label released a mixtape of the results. Model Home x Pure Rave takes the fracture Dadaist rap tracks and holds them in place, turning them into abstract techno building blocks. Beats hobble, pitch-shifted vocal bursts cut in, key phrases from the album jump out and repeat, but clipped and jumbled. It all stops on a dime, seeming to be another slab of an endless mix session. One assumes that Pure Rave could easily fill up an entire evening using the same album as source material.