These New Puritans - Beat Pyramid

these new puritans are from southend, spawned from the same club that gave the horrors to the world and they share a similar dark, gothic vein but take a totally different musical approach. jack barnett (vocals / guitar / computer), george barnett, they’re twin brothers, (drums / percussion / tapes), thomas hein (bass / sampler / percussion) and sophie sleigh-johnson (synths) take their name from the fall’s mark e smith's new puritan persona.

there will be alot of comparisons by, frankly lazy journalists, to klaxons and nu-rave but that couldn’t be further from the truth. a far more appropriate point of reference would be battles, they have a similar obsession with repetition, and a disjointed awkward sound. they take alot of cues from hip hop as jack barnett explained in an interview last year "wu tang clan are massively influential. 'spitting the code', as roots manuva puts it, is what i do".

they are clearly interested in repetition and patterns, and numbers crop up alot in their lyrics, and use repetition to create their own myths and meaning, they think nothing of borrowing lyrics or riffs from other of their own songs, which makes their jagged non-rhythmic songs feel organic and natural. ‘numerology’ sets out their master plan, a minimal hip-hop style rhythm fused to a jagged frantic guitar and a soaring synth pop chorus. ‘colours’ has spasm’s of awkward guitar and frenetic drums - very battles-esque, ‘elvis’ is probably their most radio-friendly song, and next single. ‘swords of truth’ is a leftfield anthem in waiting, it throbs with dark menace, sharp fighting guitars and dischordant synths. ‘infinity ytinifni’ has huge bass like something aphex twin would come up with, and jack barnett spitting out his lyrics about philosophers and history, in a stream of conscious manner, much like mark e smith.

this is an excellent debut from a band that promise much more.
Jon toohellwith

www.thesenewpuritans.com