These New Puritans – Hidden

These New Puritans are not your average folk band. In fact despite the numerous bassoons, horn arrangements and melodious vocals they aren’t a folk band at all. Far from it. But listening to their second album Hidden you can’t help but think maybe they have captured the sound of their hometown of Southend-on-Sea. Perhaps the once thriving seaside retreat, unable to compete with Magaluf and Faliriki in the nation’s holiday affection, has declined to such an extent that it has morphed into an alternate Blade Runner reality where the brass bands play over atmospheric dub-step in dilapidated bandstands and the teenager’s idea of a good time is eating rock laced with a speed substitute. Though a quick trip to the VisitSouthend website proves this to be a false assumption, brass bands and choirs are a very big part of Hidden, giving a sense that it may have in fact been recorded in the town hall. 

But Hidden is not music for the town hall disco. The first track 'Time Xone' is all horns, recalling Miles Davis’ Sketches of Spain and there are a few such interludes throughout. Though by the time we move onto the second track, 'We Want War', the pace has already picked up. The Burial influences are brought in, with cinematic keyboards and frontman Jack Barnett’s Thames Esturary droll. It’s easily a song for the dancefloor – a battlecry for the partying hordes of Essex. It has numerous samourai sword noises, showing the band’s Wu-Tang influences. In fact there’s so much going on, most of it interesting, that there’s quite a lot for one reviewer to write about. I’ll move on. 

The rest of the album continues, always surprising and mostly unsettling. 'Hologram' uses a piano, xylophone and the bassoon to good effect. “Shut the door” sings Barnett. “I’m not an actor/I don’t have lines to say/until I write them down on this piece of paper” he sings on 'Attack Music'. And although the punctuated lyrics and direct vocal style capture your attention, it’s the tribal drums that really arrest the musical brain. The beats are really relentless. In fact, there should not to be listened to on bad headphones for fear of head pains. Put right at the forefront of the mix on 'Drum Courts-Where Corals Lie', they cut out mid-way through to reveal quite a pleasant melody, only to shove you back to disconcertion a few seconds later as the pounding snare reactivates itself. Penultimate song 'White Chords' is another album highlight with the repeated chorus of “I’ve got white chords running through my body and the fur of a white cat on my back”. Beat that Bat For Lashes! 

Jack Barnett recently said in an interview that he didn’t really listen to anything after Beethoven or before 2005. Perhaps then that's why These New Puritans sound like year zero.