Impurfekt is the dark electronic music project of Aaron Russell, from somewhere in the U.S. (Seattle, or thereabouts, I think). Some of Impurfekt's influences are Velvet Acid Christ, In Strict Confidence, Massive Attack, Enigma, FSOL, Michael Kamen and Akira Yamaoka. Some of those influences can be heard in the music to a degree, but is always the way an artist chooses to incorporate these influences into the music that gives it a unique identity, for better or worse. We all hope for the better, but sometimes it doesn't always work out that way.

I see that Impurfekt has had several other releases going back to 2008 prior to this one, but I haven't heard them, so all I can conclude is that Russell isn't a 'newbie'. On 'Savior' Impurfekt presents a dichotomy of dystopian electro-industrial and moody trip-hopped ethereal dream pop. There is much more of the former than the latter, which is really too bad as this project's strength seems to lie in the opposite direction. This is due to a great extent to the dreamy vocals of Karra Russell (sister, I believe) and that Aaron gets everything right on the songs that feature her. But more on that later.

Aaron's strengths in Impurfekt lie in his use of quasi-classical elements (strings, orchestration), ambient elements and synthwork while his weaknesses are his vocals the lack of punch, power and inventivness in the percussion and drums, and sophmoric song lyrics. I'm impressed with Impurfekt's richness of sound and use of dark, brooding ambiences though. From the opening piano chord of 'Ashes' I had high hopes and the foreboding dark ambience that followed seemed to promise something truly chilling. The rapidly sawing basso ostinato strings promised even more'¦then the drums came in. Sounded like a drum machine'¦too bad. Aaaron's vocals are of the hoarsely whispered variety, common enough in electro-industrial music. Even VAC's Bryan Erikson doesn't have the greatest set of pipes, but somehow through processing power (and sheer malevolence) he manages to make it work. Aaron does use electronic processing on his voice but it still lacks the power needed to sell the song. Part of the problem is that his melodic ambitions seem to fall short of his vocal capabilities. This is evident on tracks such as 'The Brave One' and 'Stillborn' both laments which should be emotionally wrenching but just come across as rather wimpy. Vocally, he's much better on 'God Is The Devil' where the only lyrics are 'God is the devil'¦your god is evil'. This track is very much in the VAC vein in the synth department, although the percussive track lacks power. Maybe some of it is due to the mix, but I don't think Russell puts as much oomph into the rhythm programming as he does to the instrumental programming and orchestration. One case where the vocal processing is just too much is on 'Cyborg' where the vocoder is set to and not stun and nothing can be distinguished lyrically through the effect. To me that seems to take away from anything the song was trying to say.

Let's move on to the tracks I really liked. 'Shadow' is an excellent moody downtempo ballad with a nice repeating guitar (sound) line, a moving bassline and spacey string ambience. It's Karra's vocal that makes this track work wonderfully though. She appears again on 'The Day The Earth Stood Still,' another downtempo track with angelic synth voices, piano, lazy ambience and excellent orchestration. Karra's wispy voice drifts through the clouds of the music like an angel. This is what I wanted to hear more of.

As I see it, Aaron has a choice with Impurfekt; figure out a way to improve his vocals and pump up the rhythm if he wants to stay in the electro-industrial milieu, or scotch that side of the project in favor of going the downtempo route with Karra. I see from the website that Impurfekt has an instrumental EP out called 'In Loving Memory' which I previewed a little of, finding it quite different from 'Savior'. It's somewhat minimal but rather interesting. Reminds me of Eno's 'Music For Films' series. On the website Aaron hints at his involvement in a new project fronted by Karra, and this could be something to definitely look forward to. As for Impurfekt's 'Savior', it is definitely imperfect, but worth a listen (you can check it out on Impurfekt's website) for Aaron's instrumental abilities and Karra's voice. Aaron's artwork for the 'Savior' CD is rather nice too, with an appropriately bleak post apocalyptic cityscape.