Pure Assassins - Questions

Chris Rush was first known as a drum and bass artist as a member of Calyx in the 1990s. Under the guise of Pure Assassins, he’s created an album that chiefly draws on a host of rock influences while splicing them with those electronic roots. In fact it’s not always possible to tell if this largely riff-based rock is played on a guitar or keyboard (Rush is credited with both as well as singing). The title track opens the album with some rather strained vocals from the grunge school, over a slow, sludgy backing somewhat like latter-day Gary Numan. The chorus of ‘Time Machine’ similarly evokes Nirvana, while the jerky funk of its verses moves through Red Hot Chilli Peppers territory. The crisp rhythm of Tom Hooper’s drums brings the Peppers to mind again on concluding track ‘Sing Their Song’. Allied as they are with a ferocious Led Zeppelin-style riff, the combination makes for the album’s most exciting track despite the vagueness of its anti-conformist sentiment, albeit one elevated by a gospel choir (“We’ve gotta change the song”). Vocally Rush, though British, for the most part sounds as if he would fit right in with any number of American rock bands – a voice not lacking in power or expressiveness (e.g. his plea to “Dance with me so I can feel/Feel alive”), just not particularly distinctive. In a like manner, there’s often something familiar with the album’s basic musical style, though there are details that help distinguish the tracks, from the electric piano touches on ‘Dance With Me’ and the treated vocal interludes and acoustic guitar of ‘Spin ‘Til The End’, to the movement from string synth and military drums to guitar of Nine Inch Nails dirtiness during ‘By My Side’. Meanwhile ‘Heathen’ and ‘Easy Trigger’ are strong rockers, Hooper’s solid yet deft drumming again important for their impact. With Chris Rush having moved from the dance scene into rock, what the potential musical collision of the two worlds could produce seemed promising. As it is, many of the musical answers to that question which are given here have already been offered. Perhaps Pure Assassins will need to go further towards uniting the extremes to really create a killer album.