This Heat

Deceit (Rough Trade)

Pure Adult Brings This Heat: Jeremy Snyder of NYC experimental band Pure Adult told us of his admiration for likeminded Brits This Heat.

Jeremy Snyder: I’ve been unpacking This Heat’s Deceit (1981) for decades. I discovered this band nearly twenty years ago and it rang nearly every bell I’m constantly trying to ring. It exists in a type of isolation — post-war Croydon, devastated by bombs and exploited resources. Refusing to compromise for the comfort of a “scene” while seemingly intending to include everyone. It’s experimental, but it’s not exclusive; it does not cower in the corner claiming intellectual ascent is necessarily to tolerate it’s exploration. Deceit makes you wonder if you’ve had your tastes in reverse this whole time.

Thisheatdeceit

(Rough Trade)

I grew up in a socially isolating environment; sheltered from the outside world but alienated by the other religious people surrounding me. I absolutely made an idol out of music. (The religious leaders around me predicted that correctly!) But I was interested in music that had no value to them. I read an interview with Nico Muhly (Who’s record, Mothertongue, is an absolute masterpiece and runner-up for favorite record of all time) where he said, when he looks back on his entire musical life, he can see a direct line from what he was interested in as a child and what he’s making now. It may be crudely related and invisible to everyone else, but I really related to that concept. I’ve been chiseling down to what I make now this entire time, and that isolation emotionally bonds with a sense of isolation in other works.

I admit these records may be more challenging than I’m claiming but, when I heard them, it was like someone giving me permission to not worry about anything besides sitting in my studio, hearing immediate playback and deciding whether I liked what I heard or not. This Heat shows you that you’ve always had permission to use no external parameters, to make the thing you want to listen to, and that, perhaps, that is where the real work lies.

Pure Adult Brings This Heat: Pure Adult’s single “Cam Girls” is out now.

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