Toronto – The first few months of any year is usually weak for music as everyone has already rushed out to put their releases for Christmas season. With this musical drought, I decided to once again hop aboard my Delorean and take a trip back in time…back to the times when music were not obtained by things like Bittorrents or rapidshare, but by things like the kindness of strangers, IRC and IRC bots. Yes, we have journeyed back to 1999. Like I’ve said before, efnet, #mp3uk circa 1999-2002 was where I developed most of my music listening habits and today we will look at a another band that some of the peeps in that place quite enjoyed.
The band in question is Puressence. Despite sounding like a shampoo, Puressence is actually a rock band from Manchester. Some people can compare their sound to early Radiohead, but that is just because lead singer James Mudriczki’s voice sounds like a cross between Thom Yorke and that chubby dude from Keane. I like to think they sound more like a darker Marion, but really, that is a bit obscure a reference, so lets say they sound like Pablo Honey-The Bends Era Radiohead. I asked resident Britpop expect Nick about this band:
Nick: the most gloriously depressing band there ever was wait, didn’t you do a similar blog about them a couple of years back
Me: no..i didi one marion
Nick: ahh that’s what I’m confusing it with heh
Despite much fanfare for the 15 people who populated our little group, Puressence did not chart well (if at all) and they never reached any real level of success. The non success of the third album “Planet Helpless” prompted Island Records to ask Puressence to “sound more like Savage Garden.”, the band left the record company and went into hibernation for a decade before coming back non-triumphantly in 2007 with their 4th LP – Don’t Forget To Remember.
Don’t let the boring album art and the lack of commercial success foil you though, this band has put up some quality songs and definitely is worth looking into.
