Before I become emotional about the music, before it takes me to the edge of desperation that is brutal and hurting, before thought becomes rational and structured, his voice will be there. It will be looking for the smallest gap in your armour, it will be ready to sneak the security from your soul. It belongs to James Mudriczki and it scares me. Frail, chilling, the coldest nightmare during the shortest sleep - a voice that takes Puressence from sounding intense to sounding TOO intense.

That of course, is not meant as a criticism. There is a theatrical shiver in his shrill that sounds not compelling nor especially moving, but truly fascinating. If Joy Division were about personal pain (and its uncomfortable public exposure), Puressence sing about a horror which is more expansive and suggestive.

However, they both share a paranoia and fear that makes you feel flattered at being allowed so close to the centre of their vulnerability. And they both sound so gothic - gothic in the urban sense of concrete and clay, the city-centre decay in Ian Curtis' tower block realism.

What will get you, too, is how the music glows within this paranormal density. Near Distance and I Suppose run frightened down Manchester high streets at midnight, Mudriczki's voice emerging from the deserted alleys excited and anxious. The guitars brighten and dim like eclipsing suns, Traffic Jam In Memory Lane sounds like the shatter of every shop window in the country. It is the sound of exhilaration and melancholy. Casting Lazy Shadow feels like the last, confused sigh of a delicate spirit, with its raincoats-against-the-wind weariness leaving you exhausted, hopelessly intrigued.

Perhaps Puressence's greatest achievement is to keep their intensity so passionate, not ponderous. Their self-analysis is delivered so nervously that you stand shocked as the storm clouds gather overhead. It is rare these days to find a rock group that can succeed in being seen as 'authentic' and that you still want to cherish and protect - but, then most rock is not fuelled by the heart-burning adrenalin which makes Puressence seem so important and urgent. It sounds like nothing else matters except the frenzied expression of all their extreme moods, the defiance of self-obsession when each and every small decision in life assumes grave significance.

And nothing else DOES matter, does it?

Daniel Booth Melody Maker