These New Puritans

what came to mind when i heard it was the Yves Tumour album so maybe that's why imago is underwhelmed

I got a King Krule echo

If Jack had a better singing voice this band would rule so hard for me but t ain't so, sadly.

I love both of these songs. I also like that the musical vision is exploring a pendulum that's swinging back in the direction of Hidden.

Big Bark Psychosis vibe here too: not so much a track as a passing weather system. Intrigued to hear it in situ.

If Jack had a better singing voice this band would rule so hard for me but t ain't so, sadly.

exactly this

what came to mind when i heard it was the Yves Tumour album so maybe that's why imago is underwhelmed

― ufo, Wednesday, 30 January 2019 15:45 (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

plot twist: have now listened again to Noid by Yves Tumor and not only heard this comparison very clearly, but FAR preferred the Yves Tumor song, lol

I'm listening to a stream of the new album now, and maybe it's the computer speakers or my cold, but it's sort of reminding me of like" Black Celebration" Depeche Mode, weirdly. I mean, def. sounds like TNP, but something kind of industrial about it, less Talk Talk-y? I'm about a third or so in, but need to take a break for other things.

that sounds about what i'd expect based on the singles, looking forward to it

Yeah I've heard a promo as well -- really quite excellent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXHJhrPa0gE

another very nice new track

doing a slot on nts channel 1 for the next hour

they’re actually playing ‘blue’ by bark psychosis, bonus point to maresnest

One more video, which I guess will be the last before the entire album drops next week?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnW__v4zBvA

I've heard the new album. The first few tracks have this 80s synth vibe that works well, then it goes soft in the middle, then the last few tracks sound like he's trying to ape Talk Talk. Meh.

managed to listen to about four-fifths of it on the way in, i think it's excellent. definitely an album album rather than just a collection of tracks. looking forward to giving it a proper listen when i'm not trying to dodge psycho taxi drivers

this is the pop Coil i needed. great album.

then it goes soft in the middle

no way! that inside the rose > trees are on fire > into the fire stretch is glorious

After the first listen: As someone who was severely underwhelmed by all the singles, it really does work better as a whole, but they might have done that annoying thing where the first track is easily the best

OK it doesn't achieve the huge step up in quality that their other albums did, but it is actually rather good. It sounds glorious at least, as expected. Stronger vocals would have helped but I can't complain too much.

This was both better and worse than I expected

Well it's not as good as Field of Reeds, that's certain. I'm still deciding how much the production carries this one

it absolutely pales in comparison but it's obviously shooting at a far lower target

Did they hire a new vocalist?

file under useless/irrelevant trivia but i had no idea until i saw the albums credits that george barnett was married to pixie geldof. i remember seeing bob geldof at their show at the barbican in 2014 and wondering why he was there

really love this

Halfway into this and it's gorgeous

Majestic. Best album I have heard this year, so far, I cannot stop playing it. It's so utterly Bark Psychosis, but in the best possible way. And that bass! That bass. Magnificent.

(is that David Tibet I hear on 'Into the Fire'?)

yes

I have never listened to these guys before, but I really like the new album. Will be checking out the older stuff.

This is great, but is it very short or is that my imagination? Seemed to be over as soon as I was getting into it

9 tracks and 40 minutes.

I'm not getting Bark Psychosis from this at all, though; it sounds like TNP boiled down to an essence, for me. Possibly slightly too much; it's slipping by me without leaving an impression quite a lot, which may just be my life and how much time I can give to it right now. I feel like it's lacking some... drama? Or tension, somehow? A little of the oddness of the last two records?

Seemed to be over as soon as I was getting into it

the last couple of tracks do seem to whizz by. has been on pretty much constant repeat on my phone when i've been out and about. feel weirdly emotional every time that 'where the trees are on fire' comes on, like i could be stood in the shop buying a toothbrush or whatever and all of a sudden i have visions of the impending apocalypse running through my head. one of the older songs on the record, iirc they closed with it both times i saw them on the field of reeds tour

xp

I've listened to this three times now and I really don't get the sense that it's aiming less high than Field of Reeds at all. It doesn't feel like a giant leap into new territory like the last two I suppose, but if anything it feels like a distillation of them (in fact there are are songs here that feel like FoR superimposed over Hidden).

Talk Talk and Bark Psychosis continue to feel like lazy comparison points to me, impossible to imagine either doing anything like the cavernous bass on Beyond Black Suns, or the moment when the skittering breakbeats come in on A-R-P - in fact it feels like a much more *digital* album than the last couple, to an extent that those moments give us a slightly frustrating glimpse of a direction they could have gone further in.

But it's all just so lush and melodically involving throughout, both the last albums had insane highs - and there isn't a We Want War or a V (Island Song) here - but also long periods where your attention would wander a bit. There isn't a single wasted minute here.

(Also I thought Steve Reich was a lazy comparison point last time round but there's a burst of female vocals midway through one song which is straight out of Music For 18 Musicians).

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.

err, bark psychosis were fiends for the cavernous bass matt, absolute fiends i tell you!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLOE7IyCGeQ

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