Music: These New Puritans
Jeff Hemmings searches for the elusive formula
There is something rather disconcerting and odd about the music of These New Puritans. Flying the flag for a new musical manifesto, the mix of Jack Barnett’s drowsy vocals, Elisa Rodriguez’s abstract vocals, neo-classical music and strange cover versions (in this case a very drowsy take on Herb Alpert’s This Guy’s In Love With You) are like no other. You can simply throw those Underworld, Sonic Youth and industrial synth pop comparisons out of the window. Occasionally, TNP strike a rock pose, but more often than not the mix of strings, wood, brass, synth melody lines, bassoon bass, almost indecipherable lead vocals and vocal harmonies dominate proceedings. Really, they are neither a rock nor indie. What the hell are they?
“I don’t have any formula,” says Jack Barnett, frontman of the band, and whose twin, and ever-so-slightly older brother George plays drums. “It’s always different with every song, but there are songs that will start with piano, or with sequencing software, and I will always have a dictaphone at hand to sing things into. Sometimes a song will require bass or piano, or sometimes a song will require breaking glass. It’s always what the song demands, that dictates what we play. There was a particular moment on Field of Reeds where I wanted to get the sound of waves – I could have got it off the internet – but Graham, who produced the album, was in Argentina at the time, and he went out on a boat in the middle of the night… his apartment was on a cliff face, I always think of him in mortal danger for our purposes.”
This approach has taken them far away from the post-punk music they created on their first album, Beat Pyramid, which came out in 2008, none of which seems to play any part in the live shows nowadays. “We are always restless, even on stage when songs take a life of their own. There are a lot of people on the (Field of Reeds) album, and so immediately after finishing the album, when we play live, I’ve had to completely re-write and re-arrange the music. But it improves the music in some way, having the septet, it adds to the music. We do 50% from Hidden, 50% from FoR.”
Field of Reeds came out to much acclaim last year, garnering a Mercury Music Prize nomination. For this Great Escape show they’ll team up with Wild Beasts. “We’re working on new music. The Brighton show will be a full stop on Field of Reeds. After that we will be working on something else.” And what might that be? “Whenever I try and second guess what I will doing I always get it wrong. For all I know it could be country and western. But I do like British soundtracks from 50s and 60s and we’ve had people enquire about that…”
Concert Hall, Brighton Dome, Friday 9 May, 7.30pm, £19
Follow me: latestjeff
