These New Puritans

All Music Guide:

Hailing from the town of Southend, England, the four-piece These New Puritans play Fall- and PiL-inspired music that also takes on elements of electronica and dance. Comprised of vocalist Jack Barnett (who also plays the guitar and laptop), his twin brother and drummer George, keyboardist Sophie Sleigh-Johnson, and bassist (and man behind the sampler) Thomas Hein, the band formed in 2006, when all the members were still in their teens. Their edgy aesthetic and particular live show (Jack, for example, usually performed wearing a shirt fully buttoned to his neck) soon brought the group attention from the British press, enough that soon-to-be-former Christian Dior designer Hedi Slimane asked Barnett to compose something for his fall 2007 collection for Dior Homme, a piece, "Navigate, Navigate," that was then debuted in Paris in February at the fashion show. In October of that same year, These New Puritans issued an EP, Now Pluvial, on Angular Records. Their first U.S. release. "Navigate, Navigate," came out in America in February 2008, a 12" that acted as a primer for their debut full-length, Beat Pyramid, which emerged the following month. The follow-up album Hidden, which was co-produced by Graham Sutton of Bark Psychosis, was released in early 2010. Undergoing some transformations, including the departure of Sophie Sleigh-Johnson, the band returned with the very untraditional but well received Field of Reeds in 2013.

Wikipedia:

These New Puritans are a London-based band from the Southend-on-Sea area. The group consists mainly of Jack Barnett (songwriter, producer, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist), his twin brother George Barnett (drums, loops) and Thomas Hein (bass, sampler, keyboards, drums). Sophie Sleigh-Johnson (keyboards, sampler) was an active member of TNP between 2006 and 2012. They have recorded three albums, Beat Pyramid, released in 2008, Hidden, released in 2010, and Field of Reeds, which was released on June 10, 2013.

History[edit]

In a 2008 interview, Jack Barnett said that hip hop ensemble Wu-Tang Clan, especially member RZA, influenced the first album Beat Pyramid. Other inspirations include the electronic music of Aphex Twin and the cartoon series The Smurfs. At the time, Artrocker described These New Puritans as sounding like "Sheffield and Berlin synths, '90s alt rock Sonic Youth and Yo La Tengo drones, Underworld beats; and all in the most contemporary of contexts". Although unusual for a rock group, the band often incorporates the same section of music into different songs as refrains.

Before second album Hidden was released, Jack Barnett revealed that he had been writing music for bassoon and stated that the aim was for a final product where "dancehall meets Steve Reich". In a 2010 interview with Barnett, Paul Morley described These New Puritans' new material as "very 1970, but also quite 1610, 1950, 1979, 1989, 2005 and 2070". When performing live during the Hidden era they were often accompanied by a five-piece brass-woodwind ensemble. In 2010 they performed a series of full live performances of Hidden (featuring a brass-woodwind ensemble, Taiko drums, children's choir, three vibraphonists and live Foley techniques) entitled Hidden Live, at venues such as the Barbican Centre (featuring the Britten Sinfonia), the Pompidou Centre and Berghain. In a May 2010 interview with C.B.Liddell, Jack Barnett revealed that he was interested in Melanesian music and that he anticipated that the next TNPS album would be "quieter." Towards the end of 2012 the band resurfaced to remix "Mutual Core" by Björk; the remix was featured on the remix album Bastards.

On 22 December 2012 the band announced they had finished recording their third record which is to be released via Infectious Music. No tentative release date or title was announced. On 23 April 2013, they confirmed that their next album would be titled Field of Reeds and would be released on 10 June 2013. Joining them is jazz singer Elisa Rodrigues, who according to George Barnett's interview with Zane Lowe on BBC Radio 1 is featured on half of the third album. The band posted a teaser trailer for the album on their website. On June 13 they posted a video to "Fragment Two", directed by Daniel Askill (who had previously worked with the band on the video for We Want War).Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist}} template (see the help page).

Projects[edit]

Along with other Southend artists, These New Puritans played at the Junk Club and Dirty Heart's Club, responsible for popularising the local music scene. The band has had support slots for Björk, Suede, British Sea Power, The Kills, and Klaxons.

TNPS worked with designer Hedi Slimane and recorded the song "Navigate, Navigate" for the Dior Homme Hiver 2007 show. Both the music and the collection received positive reviews. The band members also took part in an art/dance performance at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris for the after-show of the Stage of the Art.Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist}} template (see the help page).