A festival first-timer hit these days is as rare as a useful Jobbridge, so seeing Purity Ring transcend expectations as a mid-table witch house act as one of this year’s Forbidden Fruit highlights was a swift kick to the mid-riff. Shrines, Ring’s 4AD debut, tied to boxy hip-hop structures and drama-queen synths as much as their early stand-out singles Belispeak and Obedear were, doesn’t quite fulfill their Kilmainham promise. The album is at its strongest when synthster Corin Roddick’s high-energy contributions to Born Gold peek through Shrines’ more langorous leanings – nonetheless Megan James’s transcendence of having a crap singing voice through employment refreshingly non-ethereal lyrics pushes this just beyond Salem-lite.
