Reviewed by Mike Rimmer

Corning out of the Divine event at St Thomas's church in Sheffield and the band's local schools work, the Purity album Inner Joy1 is the master work of one Tim Cooke aka DJ Saint. Competent without capturing my heart and propelling me out onto the lounge floor for a quick frug. A lot of this either sounds seriously dated ("Never Alone", "It's Alright", "God Will Come"} or like a Tribe rip off ("Wake Up", "Stop"). For example, "Jumpin' And Pumpin'" is '80s house packed with every dance floor cliche you can think of - "Raise those hands" /'Jump up and down' 'Clap your hands", "Say yeah", "Jump jump jump"= Snore snore snore more like! Unfortunately, there is little here that's original, neither the synth sounds, samples nor rapping quite cut it. The one highlight in this set is the title track, a piece of sanctified dance with some diva vocals but even here, it doesn't sound original. In a British scene that's packed with rock bands, we do need more people making clubby dance pop. Mr Cooke is to be commended for pioneering an event and an album but as for recording a club classic, this isn't it yet! Looking forward to the next one though and for Tim to find his own voice rather than imitating others.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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