So – have been very quiet on here of late thanks to my broadband having been down and not being fixed with anything even approaching the vaguest notion of speed by BT.
So I have been consoling myself all week by listening to the staggeringly good new album by These New Puritans. Called, ‘Hidden’ it’s experimental to say the least with the album almost overloading on ambitious effects. Pounding a melon and cream crackers with a hammer to mimic the sound of a human head being smashed and sampling knives being sharpened and B&Q chains sounds all rather overtly aggressive but whilst there is a militaristic backbeat to the album’s percussive elements it doesn’t slam you about the ears – it just sounds very, very driven. With a 13-piece band with woodwinds, pianos and a distinct lack of guitars, oh and a children’s choir and Japanese taiko drums, surely it must be overblown and pretentious and too full of itself to deliver on the promise of such wonderfully eclectic instrumentation? Well, yes – it is slightly pretentious but does it deliver? Oh yes. Yes indeed.
Here’s their latest video and I urge you to go and try the album – it’s unlike anything else in the mainstream you’ll have heard in years. It’s really very, very good.
heavenfaced 