ALVIN PURPLE

Only last week we were ranting on about a northern band, called Citi Petts, that in parts reminded us of The Gossip, with oversized guitar riffs and lots of punched-with-a-run-up beats. Today we are fishing in the same pond, as we’ve recently had contact from another northern band who’s new single can have it’s genetics traced back to that same American band, giving us a case of blog ditto inside of just a few days, (Ed – perhaps that should be Beth Ditto). If you like your guitar music to drive like Ryan Gosling and to hark back to the Siouxsie Sioux days when guitar grit was mixed with alternative rock diesel then you will find plenty of fuel in this new band from Leeds.

Alvin Purple are a quartet, led wonderfully by female singer, Carly Humphries, that actually launched their first double A-sided single, The Look/Stare to Declare, back in 2010. It earned them some blog coverage and a sprinkling of radio airplay on BBC 6music and Radio One. The Look introduced Humphries’ signature burnt vocals that came in repetitions over Ralph Sayers’ grinding bass riff, whilst Luke Barnfather blasted Rapture-styled guitar riffs in chopped bursts. Stare To Declare brought in more synths and a smoother, more sophisticated expansion to their sound. The first listens had us concluding that here was yet another re-hashed, post-punk sound, or perhaps at best they were seven years too late for a guitar scene that once gave us The Gossip, or even lesser-known fellow-Leeds bands such as The Hair, or The Sunshine Underground, but inside both tracks there were a few key signs that there was life beyond their obvious influences.

It was tough getting over their garage sound, which felt a little irrelevant to today’s computer-based, self-produced, Internet crowd of savvy, often electronic pioneers. But herein lies what also makes them interesting. Firstly, they followed that initial single by spending most of last year playing only sporadic shows, selecting to focus on recording a string of singles with producers, James Kenosha and Lee Smith (Middleman / Mi Mye), that are now set for releases through 2012. Secondly, this gap has allowed a slightly tweaked sound to emerge, proving that they now have the potential to transcend any current, temporary trends, much in the same way the obviously comparative band The Yeah Yeah‘s do. Just like Karen O‘s American outfit they will find more favourable responses by highlighting an intelligent depth to their music, as much as rocking it out in their productions. They need to get out of the garage and into people’s heads. Just look at the breadth in craft shown between The Yeah Yeah Yeah’s tunes Maps and Zero for example.

So the next Alvin Purple release is their new single, Huh Her, which immediately shows us something relatively new. Humphries’ kicks things off with an excellent vocal refrain, before the machine begins to pump behind her. There’s still the industrial energy – this band is unlikely to try and show us their Soft Shock – with a bass-led groove throughout. It continues to prove that they can wind it up to the louder levels that they’ve always been capable of, but it also seems they’re now able to rumble without losing touch of what is required in the design of a single, as hooks and bounce are at the centre of their craft this time around. They excitedly mentioned to us that they had the chance to use the mixing desk from Bjork’s studio and utilised a tape machine that was owned by Paul McCartney, showing us just how much they adore the legends from our rich history, but if it’s success they want then we believe they’d be better off spending time looking forwards not backwards. However, what they lack in positive invention, they make up for with other key elements, such as energy and style, so we think this is a band in the process of evolution, and if they hunt for new, original elements to add their arsenal then it will be the future that will most excite them, not the past. (MB)