by James Grimshaw (@jimgrimshank)
Pure Adult is a labour of love – that much is clear. Bianca Abarca and Jeremy Snyder are an easy alliance, formed over years of both individual and collective development. Their creative proclivities have been lifetimes in the making, but together they’ve been nailing DIY shows for six years now. New album II (out on FatCat Records) is pure fuel. The duo’s brand of imperfect-yet-pitch-perfect ‘noisymusik’ is nothing short of a tonic in days that feel ever-more apocalyptic; II, a counterintuitive soother that says, simply and also not-so-simply, ‘are you fucking seeing this?! Well, we’re seeing it too – and we do not fucking approve.’
What better to demonstrate this in practice than the album opener “Hot Crusade” – which begins with the most innocuous of breaths before a maximalist onslaught of voice, deep stringed instruments and synth? “Hot Crusade” is genuinely a crusade, through sounds and patterns that in turn reward and punish – from pleasing drops to silence to Mars-Volta-esque segues into flowery drums and feedback solos. The ultimate reward is a latter half that briefly indulges pop structure, before devolving fully into dissonant guitar loops, falling (again) into “The Rope” – a disconcerting number that cements the marriage of ‘traditional’ instrumentation with unconventional production. Shuffle drums and surf guitar meet interminable filters and post-apocalyptic synth: found sounds from after, meeting the unintended joys of before. To render the dichotomy all the clearer, the song ends with pristine, almost anachronistic piano.
“The Power Of Incredible Violence, Pt. III” was the first single to emerge in anticipation of the album. And emerge it did, in a suffuse fog of mufflejangle guitar and steep reverb, before pulling sharp focus (twice over!) into something utterly drastic and vitally necessary. Snyder’s disaffected transatlantic drawl and Abarca’s urgent vocal-fried immediacy are a double-act tour guide through this vital album, both tracking and telegraphing II’s near-unpredictable dynamic shifts. Soundscapes of heavy bass, spoken word and bluesy field recordings coagulate in uneasy, yet somehow musical fashion – and then into “Ain’t I A Woman?,” which recontextualises II yet again through hard-compressed drums and vocals.
“We Have Merchandise” is, briefly, a welcome return to conventional instrumentation. At least, it is before tape delays and steep spring reverbs co-align with samples and atonal chants to form something altogether comforting and disconcerting – but enjoy that upraked guitar! And this waltz! And looking away from disaster. And these impassioned strings, that dare you to become vulnerable. Whenever II starts to feel even a little sluggish or even ‘comfortable’ in its own soundscapes, scenes are invariably changed in unexpected and exhilarating fashion, drawing from an extremely wide and extremely specific vocabulary to create a world all its own. The stereo image of “The Long Leash”’s first minute is at once discomforting and pacifying, a pseudo-binaural experience that seems keen on rewiring you entirely.
By the last two tracks, Pure Adult swing back towards more recognisable noise-rock territory. In “A Big Surprise” Synder’s proclamations touch Thank and Beige Palace in performativity, while the guitar riff central to final track “Etcetera, Etc.” reaches for Tropical Fuck Storm – before degrading in performance as if a tape loop losing fidelity. II is a propulsive journey that rewards a keener ear. The first listen gives you broad strokes and satisfying noise-rock riffery, but second and third listens reveal secrets, layers, wheels within wheels. This is a future cult classic.