These New Puritans

One thing—and I feel so bad that it's the first thing I thought about when I heard this album—I just wish the horns had been given more time to rehearse. There's something about the performance that sounds like they're sightreading it. On the Talk Talk records where the horns are deliberately strained sounding you can just tell it took them six months' worth of editing to arrive at. You just wish TNPS had that kind of budget and time.

But thankfully they've basically ditched all the vestigial nu-UK-post-punk-dance stuff that you could tell on the last record they didn't quite know how to reach beyond.

For whatever insane reason this record also reminds me of Coil covering Tears for Fears songs. Ha ha I don't know if I can even explain that.

"Coil covering Tears For Fears" - that's brilliant.

Quick observations after my initial listen:
- I concur that it's a grower of a record, whereas the debut was utterly immediate.
- They seem to use the particular badoom-doom drum sound far too often.
- The lead singer has learned how to sing since the debut, and I'm not sure that's a good thing as I loved his wilfully amateurish vocals. Having said that, he sings far less on "Hidden".

Haven't heard the other record, but there's some pretty damned amateurish vocals on "White Chords."

Love that track.

"Drum Courts" is killing me right now, love this album.

it's been a while that indie music has challenged me like this album does

Can't wait to hear this, but unfortunately it isn't out til March here in the States.

Out today. Probably gonna pick this up on the strength of what I've heard, various YouTube songs and so forth.

Got impatient and acquired it anyway. Will probably buy when I have the funds again though, because I absolutely love it.

Wau at track I'd say: this album is actually a proper Thing!

"at track 6 I'd say", sorry.

to say that this album is utterly underwhelming after 'we want war' is an understatement

it's like 'hey we had one song that insidiously and skillfully built up the tension to an awesome climax - and a load of other songs that bashed around with loud drums for a bit and didn't develop at all!'

well, "5" is really good as well. but the rest can hang.

no one in america has ever heard this band

Hi I live in America and like this band a lot.

Yeah, me too. And while I find the new album pales in comparison to the debut, it has grown on me. But we may see it as classic sophomore slump in the future.

So if I were to have to choose between seeing this band and Fucked Up, I should see Fucked Up.

NB. I like Fucked Up but have seen them before, and I was curious about TNP because lots of people around here seem to like them.

Saw them live in 2008 (American here!) and even though me and one other person were the only ones who knew the lyrics to the songs, it was still a very BIG, fun performance. George kills it on the drums and is very fun to look at.

nobody has answered my criticisms of the album

'we want war' is one of the best songs of the last few months, but nothing else (apart from '5') lives up to it

nobody has answered my criticisms of the album

Nothing to answer, really, as I more or less agree with you.

I don't mind going to bat for these guys. Don't think that Hidden is as one dimensional as LJ has portrayed it. Sure there's repetition of certain themes and sounds, but they're being pulled into different shapes track by track and that's what makes it all hang together as an album IMO. Like those drums - yeah, they're always loud and militaristic, but sometimes they're banging out brute hip-hop-ish beats, other times they're more like some sort of ceremonial music by Purcell, like from one of his marches or something. It ends up suggesting this weird mix of current and historical tensions. Same with stuff like that sword sound that keeps popping up. Is it a Wu-Tang reference? Or is some sort of medievalist shit going on? (I love that sound btw, it's probably a bit naff throwing it in there as this signifier of menace, but I think it really works as a sound in itself. Kind of reminiscent of the way that Ben Frost used the howling wolves on his album last year in that respect?)

Odd that you picked up on the closing track, '5', because that's the one track that I couldn't imagine listening to outside of the context of the preceding tracks. Love the way it start out with those Vespertine-ish chimes, but then the woodwinds start playing what sounds like the same melody they played in 'Canticle' and then there's that choral melody that creeps in that seems to be looking back at 'Orion', but it's a lot more muted this time round. Give it a few more listens as a whole, cos things will start falling into place a bit better then.

BTW:

16 July 2010

Big News:

ĦỊĐĐỂŅ LIVE

This winter, These New Puritans present ‘Hidden Live’ – a chance to to witness the album
performed, as it was recorded, with 15-piece brass and woodwind ensemble, multiple
prepared-pianos, live Foley techniques, taiko drums and more; the orchestra will be
conducted by André de Ridder (Gorillaz, Monkey). Following on from the debut per-
formance at London’s Barbican Centre in October with the Britten Sinfonia there will follow
shows at the the Pompidou Centre, Paris, and Crossing Border Festival, Den Hague with more
to be announced in the coming weeks.

Kudos to Dorian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/oct/07/these-new-puritans-hidden-interview

Thanks Nick. They were exactly how I wanted them to be.

Extremely good article -- got me interested in the band singlehandedly!

Bump.

All about Fire-Power.

The music's pretty interesting, but the singing reminds me of Audio Bullys. Also could do with some metal guitars here and there.

I'm very, very glad at the absence of metal guitars.

^ see the last paragraph of Dorian's piece linked above

But yeah, I could see how they might work in a Young Gods or Tricky 'Black Steel' way.

There are just a couple of drops that could use a bit more oomph, and some nice crunchy guitars would do it for me.

Man I really slept on this record this year. Amazing stuff, it's like Mezzanine-era Massive Attack meets Nine Inch Nails meets MIA meets Benjamin Britten meets a really half-arsed singer.

Actually, the vocals are fine if you think of them as imitation 3D or Karl Hyde or someone. But yeah, kind of stunned that anyone would even try and make an album like this, let alone pull it off.

Also I would like to hear Dan Perry's opinion on this.

I have a favorable bias towards this album but get quickly bored whenever something comes up on shuffle on the ipod - I guess that might not be the best way to get into it.

Yeah I can imagine it wouldn't sound too great popping up between Tensnake and Nicki Minaj but that's the same with most dark, album-oriented rock music.

So are they the reason The Fall left Domino?

I am massively intrigued by your description and would like to subscribe to your newsletter

These are the last two singles:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vasNDS9BXJI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suLfDbNHw7c

There's various live stuff on Youtube too, but I don't think that stuff translates as well.

I've listened to the first 4 tracks on this now and HOLY SHIT

well that took long enough!

I'm really not sure what to make of this on my first listen, really surprised the NME made it album of the year.

Did anyone notice the first thirty seconds of Fire-Power sound very similar to Scritlocks Door by Scritti Politti? especially the vocals.

I've tried fairly hard to get into this because I like artists who try and do something different, but I can't really. Not to say it's bad, just probably not for me.

idg this album at *all* apart from the big single, as I've said

that's because you're crazy

Indeed. I don't understand how you can love We Want War and not get the rest. It's all of a piece.

It's mostly not that different from the big single so you're probably going on some weird Hongroesque ideological stance about song length or number of sections, right?

It's totally song length snobbishness, considering that the most immediately involving song on the album to my ears is "Three Thousand".

hmm

maybe listening to the individual songs on Youtube isn't the best way to approach this record

although stuff like 'attack music' and 'hologram' and 'fire-power' doesn't grab me

we want war just has a way cooler build and narrative flow, plus the choral and woodwind chord-progressions in the second half are staggering

try maybe listening to the album before announcing that the entire thing is terrible...?

it totally ISN'T song-length snobbishness, although there's a possibility that what they're trying to do is best served by a lengthier canvas - all about subtle shifts and increments

Dan the thing is that I have listened to all the songs! Just not in order

also check out all the breakbeat stuff that graham sutton went on to do as boymerang

Yeah tbh every time I've tried to listen to Hex I've ended up being bored shitless, I don't know what it is that refuses to click for me but I find it a massive chore and have never felt the urge to explore further.

the EPs that BS did are crucial to an overall picture of them tbh - check out the final minute or so of the track i posted, thats the heaviness that they were known for at the time

I think the lack of drama / tension I mentioned is the absence of a We Want War / V (Island Song). Like there isn't quite a centrepiece which the rest of the album can fulcrum around. Which it may not need in time, but both of those were 'wow' moments that carried the rest of the record through the first few listens for me.

Yeah, BP could do bass, and Graham Sutton absolutely has lineage with breakbeats. Still not really hearing BP here though. TNP are their own thing enough.

Weirdly, the album I want to link this to the most in terms of mood/impression on me at the moment is the new Apparat.

huh I had no idea that was out already

Hitting the spot this evening. I do get the Bark Psychosis comparisons (there's a similar metallic dampness to their sound) but I find them more consciously Romantic than BP. I'm getting first Guillemots' album vibes if anything.

idk if they're more Romantic, Codename:Dustsucker is practically wandering about the Docklands composing stanzas about urban decay and frosty gardens

Perhaps I just mean pastoral?

Also, Codename:Dustsucker certainly covers off the Bark Psychosis + breakbeats angle.

Matt should listen to C:D, it might be more to his taste than Hex. Certainly is to mine

Also cosign on We Want War and V (Island Song) being the grand realisations of TNP, although I'd maybe add Nothing Else in its own quiet monumental way

huh I had no idea that was out already

Just released this past Friday AFAIK

Tracks two, three and four are all quite tonally similar to the opener, which makes me feel like the album is quite samey; whereas FoR moves around a lot in the opening four tracks. I also think Fragment 2 is incredibly strong - as good as V - and nothing on ITR has a riff as strong as that.

Once you get to The Trees Are On Fire things change up; that track isn’t what I was expecting, and is stronger for it.

It doesn’t meander aimlessly as much as the middle of FoR though, which loses me for long stretches either side of Organ Eternal.

Six is beautiful, and actually does remind me of late-period Talk Talk.

The first four tracks lack orienting moments for me, so far.

I've been really enjoying this ever since the release. Does anyone know if Jack has had some vocal lessons/training? His vocals sound much better and stronger than on previous albums.

Late to party but I don't hate his singing this time around and there's less clumsy late Talk Talk worship therefore This Is Good.

I agree that this album feels more like a distillation rather than reinvention and I am perfectly fine with that because the result is gorgeous.

― GDPR vs GAPDY (DJP), Wednesday, March 27, 2019 6:55 AM (four months ago) bookmarkflaglink

heard this for the first time tonight and immediately thought "wow djp needs to hear this if he hasn't already"

this album is fucking wonderful btw

i've been discussing this album with brad - definitely my favourite of their albums so far, and I'm surprised that some people were cool on it upthread. It feels like it has drawn on all their best previous ideas and presented them in the most pleasing form possible.

"Beyond Black Suns" sounds like TNP covering Severed Heads

i think it's my favourite they've done but that's mostly due to them moving in sound a little towards things i like more and becoming a little more accessible i guess? not that field of reeds was bad or anything it's just a bit... idk if dense is the right word but it was more of an appreciate at a distance thing rather than being that moving to me while inside the rose is more direct in appeal. i can understand people who loved field of reeds being a little underwhelmed by this one though.

Field of Reeds is if anything a little bit too diffuse in places, in that the bits that aren't incredible just drift away a little. The new one has a lot more shape to it.

at a certain point i could see this being my album of the year. every time i put it on it's an almost overwhelming experience of depth and beauty lol

i'm not sure what the end of "beyond black suns" reminds me of but my god

depeche mode plays slowdive's pygmalion

reminds me of Air 'New Star In The Sky' a little bit

Only just hit me the other week the similarity of Where The Trees Are On Fire's chords to the coda of the Beach Boys 'Surf's Up' (also therefore in turn I suppose 'La Ritournelle')

I'm currently listening to Field of Reeds on a pair of £50,000 Linn speakers and *fucking hell*.

(Not my speakers, obviously)

Envious

NEW MUSIC
Listen here:https://t.co/aG0LLIzWqM
thank you to RUSHMORE HIGH SCHOOL for their dystopian vocals
THE MIRAGE is a song we originally wrote when we were 16 , now reformed.
more soon – - tnpX pic.twitter.com/bpjTItrQsB

— THESE NEW PURITANS (@TNPs) January 29, 2020

This song is kind of silly but I am still digging it hardcore

very few bands can pull off a non-horrible song with a kids' choir; TNP is thankfully one of them

Absolutely loved Inside The Rose