Pure Ground - Giftgarten LP

Label: Chondritic Sound

Our Review:

Pure Ground is the Los Angeles duo of Greh Holger and Jesse Short who have been mining a particular vein of the EBM/minimal-wave vernacular. Jackbooted antecedents such as Klinik, Portion Control and more well-known icons like Front 242 and Nitzer Ebb spring to mind upon listening to Pure Ground's aggressive sequencing and pounding machinations. Giftgarten maintains much of the ultra-minimal production and surgical strike aesthetic that Holger and Short have constructed on previous albums, and they've slightly detoured with more of a Martin Hannett production vibe to give the album an overall gloomier pall. The vocals too are buried more in the mix, bathed in a controlled, tight reverb that never upstage Pure Ground's fetishization for ice-cold synth chemistry, industrial/dystopian allegories, horror film-score interludes and shadowy noise drones.

Limited to 300 copies.