Purelink: Expanding Universe

After the surprise success of their debut, Signs, Purelink found themselves at the forefront of a tidal shift in electronic music. As they ready their follow-up, Faith, the understated Chicago trio are learning that sometimes it’s the most unassuming voices that cut through the noise

“Never in a million years would I have expected this,” confesses Akeem Asani, one third of the band Purelink, on a mild March evening at Jones Bar in the heart of Ridgewood, Queens. “I can’t believe people are fucking with our chill-ass music. Every day, I try to take it all in.”

When Crack Magazine last spoke with Purelink in late 2023, the trio were new to New York City, having all relocated from their native Chicago around the same time as the release of their debut album, Signs. The near-universal acclaim for the record by respected tastemakers, including Resident Advisor, Pitchfork and Boomkat (who described it as: “like Geogaddi-era Boards of Canada blended with a Batu track at half-speed – whimsical but rhythmically impermeable”), put a much wider audience on to the band, the scope of which they weren’t quite prepared for.

Put another way: “We had been so used to the same ten people listening to our music, and the response shocked us,” laughs Ben Paulson. The feverish publicity led to the sort of opportunities often inaccessible to ambient acts in the early stages of their career – international tours, opening for their idols (among these they mention Tirzah and Astrid Sonne), end-of-year list rankings. In the world of ambient music, the pace of change can be glacial – even within the space of a 14-minute track – and when a breakthrough does happen, it’s barely perceptible to all but the most hardened underground heads. Purelink, however, set themselves apart in two notable ways – not only is their take on ambient techno especially warm, connective and human, they are a band of three close friends (Tommy Paslaski rounds out the group) working largely with their laptops and instruments, rather than a single, impenetrable figure ensconced in mountains of gear. 

They are the first to admit that they don’t live their lives in particularly unconventional or mysterious ways, or have a specifically esoteric method of making music: “We’re much more normal than people might expect,” Asani says with a grin.

“There are a lot of weirdos in our scene,” adds Paulson, “and that’s great, but it’s true – we’re all really normal.” They all self-identify as proud Midwesterners, who love their families and enjoy hanging out at the bar. Their energy is welcoming and easy to be around, which is perhaps not what one might expect based on the stereotype of the ambient recluse.

“I think part of the band’s charm,” Brian Foote, founder of Peak Oil, the label that put out Signs and whose platform helped elevate Purelink to the masses, tells me, “is that there aren’t a ton of groups making ambient techno, much less ones who smile.” Droll as Foote may sound, he’s right – the trio’s curious minds and affable natures led them to one another, this project and through all the doors that have opened for them over the past year and a half, including their move to New York City. Along with the release of Signs, the relocation marked the start of a new era for the trio, which has seen them settle into their roles as modest vanguards of a contemporary wave of ambient techno while continuing to propel their own sound forward.

Asani and Paulson had separately been considering heading to the east coast for a few years, what with the frequent back-and-forth for shows, DJ sets, day job duties and visits to family already in the area, but the success of Signs spurred the group into action. “It feels like there’s room to grow in New York,” Asani suggests, as the four of us squeeze into a cosy corner booth at their neighbourhood dive. “I don’t think we could do what we want to do in Chicago. I mean, I miss it. We rep  it. Sometimes I wish we could be doing  it there. But it feels like we need to be out here.”

There’s no question about the love Purelink have for their roots, from the camo Chicago Bulls cap Asani is sporting to the way the crew discuss legendary bars and DIY spots like Danny’s, Club Rectum and Laura. They swap stories about growing up in the suburbs – childhood friends Paulson and Paslaski in Libertyville to the north, and Asani in Winfield to the west – and making the pilgrimage to Chicago or Milwaukee to see live music. In fact, the guiding decision behind choosing this particular bar for the interview was that it reminded them of their hometown.

As a Chicagoan myself, I can’t help but agree. Dale Earnhardt memorabilia and multicoloured fairy lights deck the walls, and miraculously, you can get a Budweiser on tap for $3 – the Midwest vibes are strong. After politely asking the bartender to adjust the music’s volume so we can record our interview, the band promise to bring him a copy of the magazine when it’s out. For the next hour and a half, we get into the Purelink lore over Lone Stars and Miller High Lifes, the group’s three members excitedly finishing each other’s sentences. Amidst what they’re doing now, we recollect their similar indie-rock beginnings in high school, their love for the films of Paul Schrader and the complementary nature of their astrological signs (which are Virgo, Scorpio and Sagittarius – make of it what you will.)  

The indie music scene in Chicago is reasonably insular, so it was only a matter of time before Asani crossed paths with Paslaski and Paulson. He moved to the city for college and started gravitating towards electronic music, frequenting venues like Smartbar and the Hideout while DJing and producing as Millia. Paslaski and Paulson both went to college out of state but returned home after school, attending DIY shows of all stripes on a weekly basis and making ambient music (both solo and together) under various aliases, including kindtree and Concave Reflection.

One fortuitous day in 2019, Paslaski was browsing at Shuga Records, the shop where Asani worked, and they struck up a conversation. Soon after, the trio began going to shows and sharing their touchstone records with each other. “[We were on] this path of shared enthusiasm about the same types of music,” Paslaski reflects. “Club music, ambient-adjacent music, experimental music, lots of Basic Channel and Rhythm & Sound… Different types of indie music, dream-pop. Our first time jamming and making music together was in February 2020, and then everything shutting down, getting isolated…”

“We had nothing better to do [than make music],” Asani chimes in.

“[The music we were making] was a different kind of ambient from what was already going on in Chicago at the time,” Paulson notes from across the table, still clad in his puffer jacket. “There were lots of different flavours. We would go to those shows and enjoy the music, but it wasn’t necessarily our specific vibe.”   

“I will say, I always felt that there was never a shortage of ambient music being made in Chicago that was moving me and making me feel excited, like Matchess, TALsounds, Mukqs and Itsï [Ramirez],” Paslaski remarks. “But I never felt like there was a cohesive place where all of the things I loved could come together [until Purelink].”

The Second City helped Purelink hone their signature sound, find their footing as performers and thrive within a smaller DIY community. But longtime internet friends, more (and bigger) live bookings, and the possibility of making a name for themselves in a larger city beckoned. With more eyes on the band than ever before, the move to New York City became a chance to explore and evolve both musically and as people; a fresh beginning and, potentially, an opportunity to shake off preconceptions following the press’s labelling of the trio as torchbearers of the dub techno revival.