It’s a Monday night and The Barfly is officially rammo – always a good sign that has a band is worth catching – so it’s with some anticipation that we await five-piece prog-rocking newcomers PURE REASON REVOLUTION.
As they set up umpteen synthesisers, loads of guitars and various bits of computerised jiggery pokery, PRR (as they shall henceforth be called) look pretty cool – good hair, fashionably grubby clothes; typical Camden fare really. But once they’re ready to start it becomes clear that these young musos are about as far from the current norm as you could get. Embarking on a forty-ish minute meander that basically manages to take in the last forty-ish years of music, PRR mosey around between the likes of Yes and Pink Floyd, The Mars Volta and 10,000Hz Legend-era Air.
Is it proper prog though? Pretty much, yes, although fortunately there isn’t a wizard, goblin or robot in sight. Instead, most eyes quickly settle on Chloe Alper, a sexy bass-totting lass who perfectly counterbalances her four hairy bandmates. And she knows her way round a groove too – whilst it’s quite difficult to ascertain when exactly one song ends and the next one begins, PRR’s psychedelic opening salvo is eased along by her tempting bass lines.
Early on, their instrumental music possesses an absorbing, dreamy quality; James Dobson’s keyboards peak and trough in intensity, Alper’s bass continues to saunter whilst the fuzzing, sliding guitars of Jon Courtney and Greg Jong create a steady cohesive noise. There’s no singing for a while, but once it begins the three-way harmonies between Alper, Courtney and Jong become a dominant force – you can’t actually hear any lyrics, but they chant in London’s Burning style rounds, lending further weight to the fairytale-like ambience.
As PRR’s set progresses, it also becomes all the more apparent how much this band rely on the drumming of Andrew Courtney. Whilst the others are plucking grooves from the cosmos and sucking them dry, their stickman maintains and then changes pace with both composure and hostility; with songs as roundabout as these, keeping time must require immense practice and concentration.
And changes of pace are fundamental to PRR’s sound; their ability to – in a matter of minutes – move consecutively from the almost comatose ambience of a band like Air to the full on assault of Led Zeppelin is pretty impressive. This is best exemplified by current single ‘Bright Ambassadors of Morning’ which begins with an intro as eerie as Made of Stone by The Stone Roses, before twisting, turning and morphing into something off of Led Zeppelin IV.
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All this makes watching PRR an intense, almost overwhelming experience. They don’t speak between songs, they swap instruments, take turns twiddling emulator knobs… one minute the guitar players are quietly picking notes and embarking on some sort of Gregorian chant, then they’re rocking out whilst Dobson pounds two keyboards at once like Bruno Martelli in Fame. You never quite know what will happen next. One constant though is Alper, who remains cool throughout; she’s definitely got some presence – kind of like PJ Harvey – watching her reminds you that there should be more women in rock and roll.
The show’s just one long song really, but it keeps your attention right through to the end; a cacophony of delay and distortion. As the lights fall and the band begin to leave the stage, in a singular instance of crowd interaction, one of them grabs the nearest microphone and shouts ‘Imagination is far more important than knowledge.’ It’s a statement that I guess is intended to sum up PRR, and on many levels it does – you can’t question their creativity and you have to admire their ambition – however we’ve just witnessed all this ourselves; is quoting Einstein in summation ever so slightly condescending?
Then again I suppose pomposity has always been at the centre of prog rock’s unlikely appeal. And if a whole New Prog Revolution is about to begin; PRR certainly get my vote to lead the charge.
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