Puressence - Think Of The Times (2008)

James Mudriczki, Neil McDonald, Anthony Szuminski and Kevin Matthews met on a bus on their way to watch The Stone Roses play at Spike Island, and after watching The Stone Roses' Gary Mounfield play bass, Matthews bought himself a bass guitar. The rest of the members followed suit and bought the necessary equipment to form a band, although they had little to no musical experience or training, with only McDonald having played the guitar for a number of years, being heavily influenced by Eddie Van Halen. The other members soon caught up, and they decided on the name Puressence, a name which was soon well known around Manchester following paper letters spelling the band's name being plastered around Manchester city centre, on derelict buildings, and on bridges. They quickly signed to 2 Damn Loud Records, who released two singles, the 'Petrol Skin' EP in 1992 and 'Offshore' in 1993, and this brought them to the attention of Rough Trade, who included their 'Scapa Flow'/'Siamese' single in their 7" Singles Club series. Over the next few years they played a series of gigs at Manchester's In The City festival, and their big breakthrough came a couple of years later, when they signed to Island Records in 1995. Their first single for the new label was the U2-inspired 'I Suppose', and their self-titled debut album appeared the following year, drawing favorable comparisons to Radiohead's work on 'The Bends'. Despite this positive reaction, it seemed that the U.K. record-buying public preferred hometown giants Oasis' '(What's the Story) Morning Glory?', and sales were disappointing. With its lighter, pop focused sound, 1998's 'Only Forever' yielded the band's first U.K. top 40 single, with the Who-inspired 'This Feeling', and following that year's acquisition of Island by Universal, the label continued to show faith in Puressence, eventually releasing the ambitious 'Planet Helpless' in October 2002, despite many other similar acts being stripped from their roster. However, 2003 saw the band part company with the label and their manager, as well as with McDonald, who went on to form the Editors-influenced local act Juno Ashes, and a fan of the band, Lowell Killen, was brought in to replace him on guitar. 

The next few years saw only sporadic live appearances from the group, and rumours that they had split were starting to surface when they returned with the 'Pallisades' single on Manchester's Reaction Records in 2006, followed by the 'Don't Forget To Remember' album in September 2007. Recorded at Manchester's Revolution Studios, the album failed to take root on home soil, but helped to spread the word further afield, and the accompanying tour took in their first U.S. dates, and built on the earlier success of 'Planet Helpless' in Greece, where the album placed them back into the Top Ten of the Greek album charts. The retrospective 'Sharpen Up The Knives' arrived in October 2009, prior to the band's biggest ever U.K. headlining gig in front of 3,500 fans at the Manchester Apollo. In October 2010 the band's website announced details of a new album, 'Solid State Recital', which was released on 21 April 2011, but a couple years later, in November 2013, Puressence announced that they had split up. In November 2023, 10 years after their split, the band announced on their Facebook page that their first concert in 11 years will take place in their hometown of Manchester, and they played the Albert Hall last Saturday, 29 June, so now is the perfect time to remember one of the many under-appreciated bands from the early 90's who didn't fit into the Brit-pop obsession of the time, and so didn't achieve the success that they deserved. Over their career they gifted many non-albums songs to their fans on the b-sides of their singles, and so this three disc set collects them all together, along with those rare early singles, for a reminder of what an under-rated band they were.  

Track listing

Disc I: 1992-1995
01 Telekinesis (from the 'Petrol Skin' EP 1992)
02 Suck The Knife (from the 'Petrol Skin' EP 1992)
03 Polystyrene Snow (from the 'Petrol Skin' EP 1992)
04 Petrol Skin (from the 'Petrol Skin' EP 1992)
05 Siamese (Rough Trade Singles Club 7" 1992)
06 Scapa Flow (b-side of 'Siamese')
07 Offshore (single 1993)
08 None Handed (demo) (b-side of 'Offshore')
09 Mist (b-side of 'Offshore')
10 Let It All Go (b-side of 'I Suppose' 1995)
11 Free Fall (b-side of 'I Suppose' 1995)

Disc II: 1995-1998
01 Allstar (b-side of 'Fire' 1995)
02 Gutter Girl (b-side of 'India' 1996)
03 Let Down (b-side of 'India' 1996)
04 A Different Sand (b-side of 'Traffic Jam In Memory Lane' 1996)
05 Sick Of Waiting (b-side of 'Traffic Jam In Memory Lane' 1996)
06 Half The Way You Were (b-side of 'Casting Lazy Shadows' 1996)
07 Fifteen Years (b-side of 'Casting Lazy Shadows' 1996)
08 Think Of The Times (b-side of 'This Feeling' 1998)
09 Walk On By (b-side of 'This Feeling' 1998)
10 Northern Framing Company (b-side of 'This Feeling' 1998)
11 London In The Rain (b-side of 'This Feeling' 1998)
12 Along The Sure (b-side of 'All I Want' 1998)

Disc III: 1998-2008
01 Another Day Another Night (b-side of 'It Doesn't Matter Anymore' 1998)
02 Take A Ride (b-side of 'It Doesn't Matter Anymore' 1998)
03 The Drone (b-side of 'It Doesn't Matter Anymore' 1998)
04 Deathtrap (b-side of 'It Doesn't Matter Anymore' 1998)
05 Moss Side Lonely (b-side of 'Walking Dead' 2002)
06 Only Holy Maybe (b-side of 'Walking Dead' 2002)
07 Emotion (b-side of 'Walking Dead' 2002)
08 Where There's A Will There's No Way (b-side of 'Drop Down To Earth' 2007)
09 Eyes Are Streaming (b-side of 'Drop Down To Earth' 2007)
10 April In July (b-side of 'Drop Down To Earth' 2007)
11 3rd Degree (b-side of 'Drop Down To Earth' 2007)
12 Sold Unseen (b-side of 'Don't Know Any Better' 2008)
13 Bright Eyes (b-side of 'Don't Know Any Better' 2008)
14 You've Already Said Goodbye (b-side of 'Don't Know Any Better' 2008)

Thanks to jman for the suggestion.