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Review
These New Puritans' debut album arrives on a wave of excitement. Angular, brash and unashamedly intellectual - the band are seen by some as exemplifying a 'New Eccentricity' in guitar music. A movement away from luddite, retro indie. TNP sound great on paper. They cite all manner of bizarre influences - from Elizabethan magician John Dee to rap legends The Wu Tang Clan, minimalist composer Steve Reich to King William the Conqueror. They hail from the same Southend scene that spawned The Horrors and posses an accomplished producer in Gareth Jones (Wire, Liars, Einsturzende Neubauten).
However, the band fails to deliver. Driving guitars, stripped down drums, 6th form poetry - the final result on Beat Pyramid is more familiar indie territory than the experimentalism we could have hoped for. Acts like The Fall, The Futureheads and Klaxons are obvious reference points.
On opening track, Numerology (aka Numbers) frontman Jack Barnett declares over and again "Every number has a meaning!", clearly drawing from the Mark E Smith school of shouty vocals. But where The Fall can often feel urgent and exhilarating, TNP are both dry and repetitive.
They do manage to escape this dour trap from time to time - the infectious Elvis is an obvious single choice with its soaring chorus and melodic bent. The group are at their most surprising in the brief instrumental ambient sections that pepper this album. On tracks like Doppelganger, they seem to leave behind their post-punk heritage and embrace something more electronic, glitchy, ethereal and rather fresh.
It's somehow telling that the band have gathered interest from the fashion world, with singer Jack Barnett writing music for a recent Dior show and popping up on GQ's 2007 best-dressed list. Overall, These New Puritans seem to be a case of style over substance. --Tom Woolfenden
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
This is surely one of the most intruiging prospects that this year has offered us yet. Although ostensibly an indie album (and this is part of it's charm - it manages to be weird without being experimental and remains accessible), Beat Pyramid shifts paradoxically between esoteric electronica, indie dance-fodder, muffled field recordings, concept album stylings, angular hip-hop and eccentric post-punk.
Although at times it baffles, especially compared to the formulaic dance-indie that they're supposed to be making, it's all held together by recurring themes (cyclicality, numbers etc.), tape loops lapping as the record circles in on itself with `..ce I Will Say This Twice' and `I Will Say This Twi...', acting as a kind of narrative arc. For a bunch of teenagers (at the time of release), it's impressively eccentric and I must refute the cruel suggestion in an earlier review that this is too endebted to post-punk. That's just one of the many ideas thrown into the bulging pot.
Stand-out moments: Doppelganger, Swords Of Truth (Gang Gang Dance's looping beats meet Essex grime-punk delivery), Numbers A.K.A Numerology, MKK3 (think The Klaxons with an oedipal complex), and dance-floor indie belter 'Elvis.'
Although at times it baffles, especially compared to the formulaic dance-indie that they're supposed to be making, it's all held together by recurring themes (cyclicality, numbers etc.), tape loops lapping as the record circles in on itself with `..ce I Will Say This Twice' and `I Will Say This Twi...', acting as a kind of narrative arc. For a bunch of teenagers (at the time of release), it's impressively eccentric and I must refute the cruel suggestion in an earlier review that this is too endebted to post-punk. That's just one of the many ideas thrown into the bulging pot.
Stand-out moments: Doppelganger, Swords Of Truth (Gang Gang Dance's looping beats meet Essex grime-punk delivery), Numbers A.K.A Numerology, MKK3 (think The Klaxons with an oedipal complex), and dance-floor indie belter 'Elvis.'
Format:Audio CD
. . . and I'm ashamed to say I never completed the album so bear that in mind when judging my comments. An avant guard collection of sounds and beats but devoid of music or songs. The highlight for me was my ipod getting stuck and playing the 16 second track '..ce I Will Say This Twice' on repeat which took me about five minutes of listening to realise. Try it - it works, although best with the lights out.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Sub sixth form embarassing rubbish.
Save your cash. Buy something else, anything else. Throw your cash down the grid, you will feel less ripped off. Lyrically cringe worthy, musically derivative. Awful, awful,awful.
Published on 18 Mar 2010 by M. G. Scullion
restless youth
This is a great album, definitely one of my favourites if not my favourite of this year. Inventive, original, intelligent, daring..... Read more
Published on 7 Sep 2008 by Sxxxx
Fresh.
Beat Pyramid is an exciting collection of songs from the Southend four-piece These New Puritans. A group of young musicians, who are influenced by images, sounds and colours as... Read more
Published on 7 Feb 2008 by T. Callaby
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