Ash 10.1 - Purity Supreme - Always Already
Released: 2011Buy Purity Supreme "Always Already" in the TouchShop
4 tracks - 20:55
12" Vinyl EP / Digital Download
Cut by Jason @ Transition Studios, London
Track Listing:
A1. Milk St.
A2. Half Past 3 Cowboy
AA1. Famous Inhabitants of Louth
AA2. Dunderhead
"They are visiting relatives.
I want you to notice your hand me the glass.
The felt presence of direct experience."
Four new tracks from Purity Supreme. Purity Supreme is a collaboration between French musician, composer and producer Christophe Van Huffel and American writer, musician and composer Leslie Winer. "Always Already" was recorded in France at Studio7Love in May 2011.
Leslie Winer's 90s album "Witch", released under the artist name ©, is a genuine lost classic, pioneering many of the sounds that have followed. Since this prescient release she has chosen to work in the shadows. Leslie's voice has graced recordings by Bomb The Bass, Jon Hassell and Holger Hiller, and her words used on "This Is", the lead track on Grace Jones's latest effort. Alongside Purity Supreme, she is currently writing short stories to be published by The Bookworm.
Christophe Van Huffel, ex-guitarist of Tanger, has recently worked producing legendary French singer, Christophe. He is based in France.
Reviews:
Amazon (USA):
5.0 out of 5 stars Zang! Pow!, October 27, 2011
By Pecos Pete "Forever a student" (Los Angeles)
Ms Winer surfaces again, rare and unpredictable like a lone, great sea creature whose path and life is unknowable, except for these moments. We must mark the place and start triangulating. Once. she appeared in one corner of the night sky, and disappeared out the other, and some would say that appearance sprinkled the dust that spawned the "trip-hop" genre. Witch . Her work tends to hold a superficial attraction that quickly leads you on to finding a depth that rewards the consideration. And if the individual pieces are not pop-song short, their careful construction insures the interest... and then cuts out leaving you wanting.
In Christophe Van Huffel she has found a worthy creative partner. He brings sparkling guitar based aural textures that dance around Winer's more text centered genius. The natural song forms he uses add structural sense to the slow, deliberate momentum of the spoken story. It would seem Winer likes to make you work for the words, only to find several possible interpretations. The choice, of which equally as wonderful interpretation, dances just out of reach with the guitar, and by the end you have to decide to wait until next time to decide.
Where most who work collage of found material and the re-appropriation of cliché court the bad taste of someone trying to snake credit for the strength of the original work, Winer's strong and careful craft not only justifies any appropriation, but brings an added value.
These "songs" sound great. I can enjoy just driving around with the "Famous inhabitants of Louth" playing along like the track to some classic great rock track I can't quite remember... while Winer's voice burbles on about something that sounds important (in this, it is perhaps, the most aleatoric seeming combination of music and words on the EP). "Milk St." is a short film noire - the gated, distorted guitar like an industrial machine angrily spinning up to disintegration over eternity's harmonium drone, but it is "nice to see you". "Half past 3 cowboy" is like being "stuck inside a fairy ring" with the ghost of your Dickinson loving, very stoned college girlfriend - the bottleneck whines on like the soundtrack to Performance is being played by your roommate... all in all, an ambivalent acid-trip you were glad to have taken, in retrospect. "Dunderhead" is a character sketch, she explains herself to herself, as she deliberately marches across the great plain. The drums, the riff, the march builds and builds... this is no country for old men. Dunderhead is serious, and GOING TO TOWN! But... "it's all good".
These tracks are worth the time.
Foxydigitalis (USA):
This seems like an unusual one for the much-respected Touch affiliate Ash International, although in keeping with the label’s eclecticism. It’s a four-song collaboration between French composer and producer Christophe Van Huffel and notorious ex-model and avant-gardian writer Leslie Winer. Winer’s surfacing is notable here, as after some activity in the ‘80s in the New York orbit of William S. Burroughs and Basquiat, she has not been active except for producing the culty-loved ‘90s album Witch.
Mostly Always Already consists of vaguely menacing, sometimes rootsy rock music—a touch of the dark swing of Fiona Apple—with Winer’s spoken-word poetry over the top. The vocals are clearly the focus here, and Winer’s delivery is distinctive: a deep, jaded narcotic sigh, scorched around the edges, like she can barely get the words out. Like she has seen it all.
Sometimes her narrative is wearily cyclical: “I got stuck inside of a faerie ring / Jesus, I couldn’t get out,” she repeats on “Half Past 3 Cowboy.” Sometimes there’s gory wordplay: “I got a couple of drops of Indian blood, mostly on my hands,” she drawls casually on “Dunderhead.” There is disjointed closeup imagery, as when describing a watch, a propos of nothing, on “Famous Inhabitants Of Louth.” Typically Winer repeats the full lyrical cycle, an interesting choice that calls attention to certain passages in an important way, constantly dodging and shifting.
Definitely an odd charm to this one, if you can dig the musical choices.