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These New Puritans - Hidden (2010) [FLAC]
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General Information
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Artist...............: These New Puritans
Album................: Hidden
Released.............: January 10, 2010
Label................: Domino
Genre................: Alternative
Ripper...............: XLD 116.7
Encoder..............: FLAC 1.2.1 (-8)
Scans................: Full, PNG 300 dpi
Source...............: Original CD (WIGCD241S/ARC065CD)
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Tracklist
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1. Time Xone (2:07)
2. We Want War (7:23)
3. Three Thousand (2:49)
4. Hologram (2:23)
5. Attack Music (4:48)
6. Fire-Power (3:20)
7. Orion (4:31)
8. Canticle (1:12)
9. Drum Courts - Where Corals Lie (6:14)
10. White Chords (3:42)
11. 5 (4:32)
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Review
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Bassoons, French horns, Japanese taiko drums, a children's choir, Foley
samples, incantations about secret recordings, labyrinths, and knights. And
that's just Hidden's first two tracks. Raise your hand if you thought These
New Puritans had it in them. Just two years ago, the band from Southend-- a UK
borough set where the Thames meets the North Sea-- took a stab at Gang of Four
rhythms and Mark E. Smith vitriol. Their debut album, Beat Pyramid, made
interesting uses of negative space and some of the record's spartan tracks
turned up as killer remixes. But if anything, TNP were late to the post-punk
revival party and about as likely to author a grandiose and triumphant concept
album as Glasvegas.
And yet Hidden is a strikingly inventive and original rock record. Granted,
nothing is ever completely new in pop music, but the album freshly synthesizes
older ideas (post-rock textures, no-wave skronk, Steve Reich-influenced
phasing) and current trends (dubstep's delay, chart pop's stentorian synth
lines, global beats). You have to listen really hard to hear any guitars.
Similar to contemporaries Sigur Rós, Nico Muhly, and Joanna Newsom, These New
Puritans challenge classical and popular value distinctions by fully
integrating a 13-piece orchestra. A clutch of melodic motifs and variations
weave through Hidden, keeping the song set extremely tight and aesthetically
cohesive, so when "Orion"'s rabid beats and gothic choir feed into orchestral
palette cleanser "Canticle", the transition is fluid and unpretentious.
That's not to say the record is particularly organic-sounding. TNP frontman/
songwriter/arranger Jack Barnett has plotted this work of sonic theater to the
smallest detail for the biggest bang. "Attack Music" pits dancehall horns
against massive beats and cooing female voices against Barnett's arch sing-
speak. If possible, the drums, played mainly by Barnett's brother George, are
even more spectacular on M.I.A.-shoutout "Fire-Power"-- a track which
simulates the crushing of a human skull with a cracker-wrapped melon. Drums,
in fact, are so central to Hidden, that Liars comparisons are unavoidable.
Barnett credits Benjamin Britten's 20th century opera Peter Grimes as an
influence (it was inspired by the same estuary region TNP call home), and
Hidden seems to drive at some sort of human/natural world showdown. Given the
fact that we're perched on the precipice of ecological Armageddon, it's
probably safe to say the band has appropriately scaled their sound to their
subject.
But here's the thing: While Hidden's risktaking and relentless focus are easy
to admire, they're harder to love. As Leonard Cohen's "Anthem" famously goes,
"There is a crack in everything/ That's how the light gets in." Good luck
finding Hidden's cracks. Still, the record rewards dedication: Beneath the
bombast, the playful piano-driven "Hologram" is human, even vulnerable, and
the electro-pop contribution "White Chords", with its Thom Yorke-channeling
vocals, is unexpectedly lovely.
Hidden is a statement, but not a manifesto. A band needs considerable
imagination and skill, not to mention borderline delusional levels of ambition,
to attempt this kind of project and hope to be successful. So we probably
won't be hearing a lot about new genres "doombeat" or "woodwindwave" anytime
soon. And now that they've shown what they're capable of, we can probably
expect TNP to do something totally different, if not genuinely amazing, next
time around.
(Pitchfork, 8.2/10)
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