Heart-stoppingly beautiful moments of transcendent audio art...
24 · 09 · 2025
Have you ever found yourself so engrossed in a piece of art that you never want to step away from its realm? In their fourth full-length album, Canadian electronic duo Purity Ring taps into a particular variation of this experience, creating an anime and video game-inspired conceptual masterpiece that will capture your heart in its gentle grasp.
Don’t worry if you’re not a die-hard fan of anime or video games. Even if you haven't seen a Studio Ghibli film or played any Zelda or Final Fantasy games, the emotional tone of ‘purity ring’ will evoke the same poignant satisfaction. Alongside their warm characters and engaging stories, the literal worlds portrayed in these artistic creations are often breathtakingly beautiful: vibrant, magical, and ecologically balanced, featuring fluffy clouds against clear blue skies and rolling grass hills so lush that you'd want to collapse into their inviting depths. This vividly crafted environment is where these 13 tracks freely navigate.
A remarkable sense of airy freshness flows through ‘purity ring’, as if inhaling a deep breath of crisp mountain air. Several tracks incorporate liquid drum and bass—one of the most inherently buoyant genres—with ‘red the sunrise’ gently lifting you off the ground and ‘between you and shadows’ providing a more intense rise into sun-dappled skies. Other tracks are harder to define, like ‘memory ruins’, which blends acoustic guitars, filtered beats, and glimmering synths, giving the impression of having left the sky behind to journey deep into the earth, exploring stunning crystalline caverns.
The album features a loose narrative centered on two characters, named after the band members, on a “journey to build a kinder world among the ruins of a broken one.” This framework allows Purity Ring to craft a deep, evocative, and occasionally romantic internal dialogue that’s impossible not to fall in love with. The standout track ‘place of my own’ has one narrator instructing the other to “come find me where the oceans are gleaming off the sky/come find where the sun is shining through your eyes.” It's filled with similarly stunning visuals that depict the quest to find a loved one in a magical paradise.
An immersive, innovative experience (with bold, futuristic production techniques standing out like mountain peaks throughout) and emotionally resonant, ‘purity ring’ is as gripping as any music collection you'll encounter this year. A magnificent triumph of soulful electronica, it will make your world feel richer, filled with hope, wonder, and connection.
9/10
Words: Tom Morgan
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Have you ever found yourself so absorbed in a work of art that you never want to exit its universe? On their fourth studio album, Canadian electronic duo Purity