Euphoric and emotive

The experience of listening to Strange Ranger’s most recent album, Pure Music, is certainly one that is incredibly difficult to compare to anything that may seem even remotely similar. In minutes, it’s abundantly clear that despite channeling aspects of other genres and artists alike, Strange Ranger had a vision and a sonic landscape that had not been charted by anyone else, making the listen incredibly euphoric.

Almost juxtaposing itself, the sound of the record always falls somewhere between the dance floor and the bedroom floor. There are moments of colorful ecstasy and synth-led melodies that put you in the center of a throng of energetic clubbing folk and then the next places you in the passenger seat of a car with your head out the window, speeding away from the lights of the party and settling intimately in your own space.

Tracks like “Blue Shade” will end with rave-inspired EDM drum beats and very energetic synths and samples, then will be contrasted directly after by tracks like “Blush” and “Wide Awake” where vocalists Isaac Eiger and Fiona Woodman demonstrate their semi-hypnotic abilities to soothe the listener with their soft and angelic melodies. Not only is the music so polar to itself, but it differs from records that the group has released in the past. Eiger speaks to this in an interview with Paste Magazine saying “It’s so boring to just do the same thing again. I feel like you make music because you feel compelled to and why would you be compelled to do the same thing twice?”

On the production side of things, there isn’t any monotony to be found either. Because of the very creative yet sporadic approach to creating the album, no two tracks are entirely similar. As soon as the thought of repetition creeps into the listener’s mind, a new and unprecedented section ushers itself in and the track is reinvigorated; this happens quite a lot.

Tracks like “Blush” could have ended up being far more predictable to the listener, but rather than sticking to a formula, the track is rounded off with a three-minute instrumental, featuring a saxophone solo, one of which is incredibly tasteful and not at all out of place. There are all sorts of small bits of melody or accompaniment that tickle parts of your brain, including but not limited to the arpeggiated piano part that introduces “Ask Me About My Love Life” and the oscillated synth in “She’s on Fire.”