Deep Purple

Deep Purple are the great longitudinal study of rock: lineups labeled like experiments (Mark I, Mark II, Mark III…), a 1976 dissolution that was supposed to be the end, and then a reunion that has now outlasted the original run several times over. “Smoke on the Water” is the entry point everyone knows; the interesting part is everything around it.

They’re also a connector’s dream — members and producers radiating out to Rainbow, Whitesnake, and half the hard-rock family tree. When a band announces its own death and then releases studio album twenty-four fifty years later, that’s not nostalgia. That’s a system that never actually switched off.