BEAT PYRAMID
These New Puritans | WIG207 | Released: 28/01/08
These New Puritans, a band of four friends from Southend, UK, are Jack Barnett (vocals, guitar), his twin brother George (drums), Thomas Hein (bass, sampler) and Sophie Sleigh-Johnson (synth, sampler). Since their inception in October 2006, These New Puritans have released the limited edition Now Pluvial EP overseas and created the 15-minute "Navigate, Navigate" to be the soundtrack for Hedi Slimane's Autumn 2007 for Dior Homme's catwalk show in Paris, all the while earning a strong reputation for their furious live shows. Beat Pyramid is the next phase in their hyperbolic progression.
"Infinitytinifni" is a celebration of the melting of the polar ice-caps set to one chord and three drums; "Swords Of Truth" is centered around a dancehall-ish beat with cut-up drums, named after the terrorist cell linked with the kidnap of BBC journalist Alan Johnson, that may or may not also have been written in homage to the Wu-Tang Clan.
The first (and last) thing you'll hear on the album, however, is a strange, dislocated voice. "We started off with just this voice; this fragment of voice saying 'I Will Say This Twice, I Will Say This Twice' – that was the mystery," says Jack. The idea was to create a continuously revolving album that has no beginning or end. Additionally, "We wanted to make a pyramid with our sound. Cutting, carving a pyramid out of the air waves – like the sounds pulsing through the air and carving out a pyramid structure. It took on a lot of other meanings, and you can hear them all in the album. It has all the secrets, labyrinths and tunnels that a pyramid has."