David Johnson, Anthony Taibi, and Michael Dieter of White Manna join forces again for an excellent piece of improvisational electronic meditations. Those familiar with White Manna know that their music is primarily traditional straightforward guitar rock tinged with a growing touch of electronics and experimentation. As Pure Land Stars, they take you on an electronic journey through the cosmos via Kosmischeland sounding much more like an embryonic Tangerine Dream or Ash Ra Temple. Lush synths punctuated by electronic percussive elements make up most of these short meditations. The standout track here is the eight-minute finally “Eyes Like A Green Ceiling”. The track excels primarily because it has time to develop and evolve. While the shorter tracks excel at exploration I would like to see what could happen with two long tracks. I love seeing bands branch out into exploration like this with a serious approach. At times some bands or artists will say “hey I’m going to do an electronic record” and not much thought is put into the process but this seems like its something that has been brewing for a while and has a clear intent and direction. I would love to hear more of what Pure Land Stars could have in store.
The album was released in a super limited issue of 100 through Cardinal Fuzz and Centripetal Force on a new collab series under the label moniker Altered States. Packaged in a folded paper risograph printed sleeve and is limited to 100 hand-numbered copies which appear to be sold out at this point so band camp digital format is what’s left. Well worth grabbing the digital copies.
