Purity Ring – many lives & part II
Today, trailblazing electronic pop duo Purity Ring release boundary-pushing experimental single, “many lives” self-released via the fellowship. The single is released alongside accompanying track “part II”, a grounding moment of stillness woven around classical guitar from members mj and Corin.
Purity Ring returns with an adventurous two-part single that pushes into undiscovered sonic terrain. “many lives” opens to an array of choral layers—reminiscent of Kenji Kawai’s Ghost in the Shell soundtrack—woven into holographic digital keyboards, high-tempo breakbeats, and a flowing current of vocals threaded with haunted vocoders, evoking the sense of an epic journey through a distant memory. The lyrics “house of a dream, walk into me / leave me behind, within between below” captures the bittersweet feeling of being left behind while evoking a dreamlike state of contentment. “part ii” offers a moment of stillness centered on classical guitar, signaling a peaceful reconciliation of what’s to come.
“in a lot of ways, many lives + pt ii is the epicenter of things we’ve been working on recently. it’s like the sun we’ve been orbiting around for the past few years. it feels pitch black and impossible, but also has in it all the things we can make out of that. we’re just really excited about making music at this point in our career and we felt a kind of vastness and possibility when making this.”
The accompanying music video, from creative director Mike Sunday, provides the first look inside Purity Ring’s imagined RPG soundtrack, inspired by games like NieR: Automata and Final Fantasy X. Lush imagery centers around two characters – embodiments of mj and Corin – who are about to embark on a journey.
Purity Ring released their first three albums on the legendary label 4AD, beginning with Shrines, which was shortlisted for the Polaris Prize. Their breakout track “Fineshrine” is certified gold in the US, and “Grandloves” was sampled by Playboi Carti on his Die Lit track “Fell In Love.” In recent years, they remixed “Knife Prty” as the lead single for the 20th anniversary reissue of Deftones’ classic album White Pony and collaborated with industrial pop duo Black Dresses on the track “Shines.”
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