Item: Pure Devotion
Rating: 8
Author: pastemagazine

Wavelength

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Pure Devotion by Overmono & Ruthven reviewed by pastemagazine — 8.0/10 | Wavelength | Wavelength

Tom and Ed Russell tap into the tactile and tangible, resulting in a tighter and more focused follow-up to the sinuous sprawl of their 2023 debut.

For their second album as Overmono, brothers Tom and Ed Russell cloak their tracks in this physicality, the vital lifeforce of truly great dance music. Across the eleven cuts on Pure Devotion, the Welsh producers tap into the tactile and tangible, resulting in a tighter, more focused follow-up to the sinuous sprawl of 2023’s Good Lies. UK garage, twostep, and rave remain their core touchstones, but now the kicks knock harder and the BPMs run quicker. At the same time, the Russells draw from downtempo and, occasionally, trip-hop for their moodier selections, heightening both contrast and cohesion.

Pure Devotion, for the most part, is a showcase for the siblings’ production prowess. “Lockup” repurposes Fast Relief’s “What a Waste” for the club with a thumping kick, filtered breakbeats, and synths coarser than gravel. The syncopated percussion of “Slowmotion” anchors its wispy vocal samples, the sonic analog of soft city lights blanketing its buildings’ concrete contours. Poet John Joseph Holt provides some wistful narration for “Knights in Shining Prada,” whose hard four-on-the-floor pulse and Daft Punkian synth breakdown make it a strong contender for the best offering here.

Overmono sequence their latest record like a club version of After Hours: starting in the late-night environs of the dancefloor, stepping outside for a walk in the misty rain, and ending to coincide with daybreak. In that lens, Pure Devotion feels moonstruck in the Real Lies sense, meaning that they make songs about going to the club in your youth as often as they make songs for going to the club this very night. “Barum” floats by with Jaz Karis’ melismatic vocal runs and sleek square waves, evoking a wave of soothing petrichor as you step outside a crowded building. “Mialon” picks up the narrative thread, its snappy backbeat and subtle tropicalia coalescing into euphoric bliss. “Laxbrook” gets things moving again with an increase in tempo, hitting peaks and downpoints as if the track itself were a living, breathing entity, as much as the bodies on the dancefloor.

On “Gem Lingo,” the Russells pack both moods into one track, overlaying a footwork beat over Ruthven’s vocals, which coast in and out of earshot like you’re catching bits and pieces of others’ conversations on a night out. Eventually, the synths evaporate into a smoky haze, and the drums and low-end re-enter the mix like you and your friends finally found an appealing club after what had, up until that point, felt like a fruitless search. Closer “After the Rain” is a triumphant finale, conjuring the classic UK garage that Overmono excels at. You can easily imagine it blasting out of gargantuan speakers on a festival field as confetti rains on a sweaty crowd.

According to press materials, Overmono engaged in some unusual antics to get the sounds they did, from running magnets over tape to baking a cymbal in the oven with coffee grounds and vinegar on top. You’d be hard-pressed to point out the sounds themselves, but they’re here nonetheless, powering the magic behind the machinery. The music itself feels that much more concrete, the emotion that much more palpable. It feels like they’re paying homage to dance music itself and its underlying creed of physicality above all else. When words fail, Overmono know how to best get their point across: Find a cool club and dance it out, they seem to say. Just get physical. [XL]

Grant Sharples is a writer, journalist, critic, and musician. His work has also appeared in Interview Magazine, Uproxx, Pitchfork, Stereogum, The Ringer, NME, and other publications. He lives in Kansas City. You can follow him everywhere @grantsharpies.

Dance music is an inherently physical art form. Its hard-hitting beats urge you to move your body and contort it into shapes you otherwise never would, interlocking with the rhythms and basslines flowing from the speakers. When the textures of the music mirror those of the bodies in motion, the vaporous heat of a packed floor, the beams of light piercing the dark room, it feels that much more visceral. For their second album as Overmono, brothers Tom and Ed Russell cloak their tracks in this physicality, the vital lifeforce of truly great dance music. Across the eleven cuts on Pure Devotion, the Welsh producers tap into the tactile and tangible, resulting in a tighter, more focused follow-up to the sinuous sprawl of 2023’s Good Lies. UK garage, twostep, and rave remain their core touchstones, but now the kicks knock harder and the BPMs run quicker. At the same time, the Russells draw from downtempo and, occasionally, trip-hop for their moodier selections, heightening both contrast and cohesion. Pure Devotion, for the most part, is a showcase for the siblings’ production prowess. “Lockup” repurposes Fast Relief’s “What a Waste” for the club with a thumping kick, filtered breakbeats, and synths coarser than gravel. The syncopated percussion of “Slowmotion” anchors its wispy vocal samples, the sonic analog of soft city lights blanketing its buildings’ concrete contours. Poet John Joseph Holt provides some wistful narration for “Knights in Shining Prada,” whose hard four-on-the-floor pulse and Daft Punkian synth breakdown make it a strong contender for the best offering here. Overmono sequence their latest record like a club version of After Hours: starting in the late-night environs of the dancefloor, stepping outside for a walk in the misty rain, and ending to coincide with daybreak. In that lens, Pure Devotion feels moonstruck in the Real Lies sense, meaning that they make songs about going to the club in your youth as often as they make songs for going to the club this very night. “Barum” floats by with Jaz Karis’ melismatic vocal runs and sleek square waves, evoking a wave of soothing petrichor as you step outside a crowded building. “Mialon” picks up the narrative thread, its snappy backbeat and subtle tropicalia coalescing into euphoric bliss. “Laxbrook” gets things moving again with an increase in tempo, hitting peaks and downpoints as if the track itself were a living, breathing entity, as much as the bodies on the dancefloor. On “Gem Lingo,” the Russells pack both moods into one track, overlaying a footwork beat over Ruthven’s vocals, which coast in and out of earshot like you’re catching bits and pieces of others’ conversations on a night out. Eventually, the synths evaporate into a smoky haze, and the drums and low-end re-enter the mix like you and your friends finally found an appealing club after what had, up until that point, felt like a fruitless search. Closer “After the Rain” is a triumphant finale, conjuring the classic UK garage that Overmono excels at. You can easily imagine it blasting out of gargantuan speakers on a festival field as confetti rains on a sweaty crowd. According to press materials, Overmono engaged in some unusual antics to get the sounds they did, from running magnets over tape to baking a cymbal in the oven with coffee grounds and vinegar on top. You’d be hard-pressed to point out the sounds themselves, but they’re here nonetheless, powering the magic behind the machinery. The music itself feels that much more concrete, the emotion that much more palpable. It feels like they’re paying homage to dance music itself and its underlying creed of physicality above all else. When words fail, Overmono know how to best get their point across: Find a cool club and dance it out, they seem to say. Just get physical. [XL] Grant Sharples is a writer, journalist, critic, and musician. His work has also appeared in Interview Magazine, Uproxx, Pitchfork, Stereogum, The Ringer, NME, and other publications. He lives in Kansas City. You can follow him everywhere @grantsharpies.