Critically acclaimed ‘The Circle and the Blue Door’ cemented Purson as one of the UK’s greatest retro-psychedelia acts. Emerging from a hazy cloud of hookah smoke, the five-piece are back with EP ‘In the Meantime’.
Rosalie Cunningham’s vocals are placed high in the mix for this record, seductive and full of mystery, given heavy organ and flute fortification on tracks such as ‘Death’s Kiss’. The instrumentals on this EP occasionally fall victim to a mid-song acid freakout, as psych-rock acts are often want to do. However, Purson are one of the few acts that seem to realise these flights of fancy need to be centered around a strong hook. This is what places Purson head and shoulders above their contemporaries, their ability to write a wickedly catchy song borders on offensive and songs such as ‘Wanted Man’ place trippy atmospherics among riffs that the original Alice Cooper band would have been proud to have called their own.
Shrouded in heady incense and fuelled by the sultry purr of Rosalie’s voice, Purson are coming to steal your still beating heart and fill your head full of whimsical, fanciful riffs and there’s not a thing you can do about it, so you might as well enjoy it. The EP may only contain five tracks, but they will certainly do, for the meantime, while we wait impatiently for that all important second album.
(8/10 Angela Davey)
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