So, my next review is about another album from 2013, maybe a little less hyped and known. It is These New Puritans' third album "Field Of Reeds", released via "Infectious Records". That album is actually one of the best albums of the year and its atmosphere is simply unmatched by any other release that year or in the period of the few last years. The sudden, well, maybe not that sudden, but still quite sudden change in direction for the Southend-On-Sea band, currently based in London, makes sense, if you look back at their back catalogue: the first album, "Beat Pyramid", was already a rather strange statement, torn between electronic and post punk revival worlds, the band creating its unique aesthetic, mail suits, triangles, symbols, colours (the repeating of songs and parts of songs from one song to another), infinity. The second album saw them not to become that cool posing young adults band with guitar and keyboards, not knowing what to do next, yet showed a radically different side of the humble and confident at the same time youngsters. They brought us "Hidden", a completely different statement, which still, after all, resembled their first release with its aesthetic approach, but the huge brass-powered, symphonic sound with some guitar and loads of drums, from a drum kit to Taiko, banging your brain out and making you thrilled while listening to "We Want War", "Attack Music", "Drum Courts – Where Corrals Lie". The album drawing influences from Steve Reich to dancehall music, is just some kind of a completely stand-out thing in nowadays music, unmatched and incomparible simply to anything. It got the band wide recognition, but These New Puritans are not the kind of guys who flow with the tide, no. They have their own idea. So, now instead of drums that got us to dance and rock out, we get the quiet and sleepy, dreamlike third album, which is the first release without Sophie Sleigh-Johnson, the keys player, who left in 2012, and sees the band as a trio – former guitarist, now the bass player and composer, producer and brain of the whole band Jack Barnett, his twin brother George is still on drums (very stable, knowing the ever-changing character of the band) and their childhood friend Thom Hein, who used to play bass back in the day, yet now completely moved towards electronics, as it is said by These New Puritans themselves. But what I have said is only the centre of the picture, that consists of brass, children's choirs, piano and various percussion, finally a whole orchestra. And don't you dare to forget the hawk and Britain's lowest voice Adrian Peacock, the magnetic resonator piano, which saw its FIRST use in popular music, erm, for a lack of a better word, samples, and the magnificent Portuguese singer Elisa Rodrigues. Everything mentioned and maybe, something forgotten by me is present. So, here we go on our journey to "Field Of Reeds"!
The first song is called "This Guy's In Love With You", which sounds quite not TNP-like, but don't you worry – it's not their tittle, but a tittle of the original of this song, by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, and performed by Herb Alpert, while this actual song was from a recording by Jack of an amateur singer, who sung from memory in the city. Her voice appears while the piano gently walks its way through memory lane, slowly, step by step, trying not to fail, accurately. And then we make it to the brass sound and give into it, relax and somehow feel some unease. It reminds me of Sigur Rós. It is this neo-classical post rock, which is a rarety these days.
The second song and the first single off the album is "Fragment Two", well, that's a proper name for a song of this band, since they are fascinated by numbers, seemingly ("What's your favourite number? What does it mean?"). But this is something new, the bass with piano is marching with pride and dignity. Slowly, step by step, pause-play, pause play here, here Jack take the singer's role, and starts quietly talking to us, instead of theatrically singing. The bass solo is so strong and unbearable. And then the brass enters, grabbing your attention, here we go with the drums, alas, weren't there drums in the first song? So, we go on and here goes the trumpet that presents us this wonderful sound, so emotive and honest, hard to imagine anything better. When I first heard this song, I did not expect anything good. Well, boring piano, thought I to myself, but I could not help but come back to listen again and again since then.
The third song is even more massive, but it shows its size slowly, we need patience. Slow synth (wait, did I say synth? That is a magnetic resonator piano, actually) and the only guitar part on the whole album, Jack singing quietly once again, some electronic blasts and bubbles rising from the deepest part of the sea. Piano and some strange sounds then lead to the powerful chorus, a rare thing in the repertoire of TNP, after all, where we hear Elisa as well, it is so emotional and hard to go through, full of discord, unsettling and hard to digest. And then we are brought to quiet again, but slowly move on to reach inevitably the chorus once again. And then things slip out of hand, it begins to be tragically wondeful. And drums come in as well, banging hard on your consciousness. Painful bliss. So, here we are with voices, drums, orchestra and finally some smashing dropped glass. Now that's what I call a drop!
The fourth song, yet another single, is "V (Island Song)". Well, there were islands in "Fragment Two", already, but here Jack starts with no time for our preparation: "In the island, there are no places or people, and I'll go walking, on the way I'll find you..." and the frightening and mystic "And the way to get there is going round in circles...", what leaves you with your heart dropped. So deep and yet so simple. The piano is quite repetitive but calming, enchanting, go with it. Then starts the other part, with drums. Jacks talks somehow sarcastically and tensions grow, until a slow stop, and then we go deeper, suddenly it all disappears, leaving us with our own visions, some sort of righteous culminations to your life, watching things pass by, and voices, repetitive drums, but so complex, and then it gets quiet, we can relax and it goes on almost forever. One should not forget about the video too – it is directed by PICNIC, and the scenario is written by Jack! It is not something I would imagine, listening to it, yet very interesting even if frightening. The sort of animation you rarely come to see. This song is the longest off the album and once again it is treating you with these dreamlike reminiscences of your past and what you had seen. Very emotional and interesting.
The fifth song is one of the more neo-classical ones, called "Spiral". It begins with heavy sounding brass and then is joined by Elisa and a children's choir singing "You want to see the light, you want to get it right...", brass twists and is turning itself inside out, then comes Jack, for a second, then again the same, and then the lighter part starts. Jack sings and plays piano, and now he lightly sings: "This is your guided tour, exocets towards Stanley, watch the fireworks from the beach, I've got meteors falling to Earth, this is your guided tour...". This strikes me so hard. You probably should be aware of the fact, that "Exocet" is a type of French missiles (remember "like a missile, guided by vague feelings"?), so the next words sound rather terrifying in a way. Then goes the brass with a soul-piercing solo, that can make you cry. If you have a heart... The utmost saddest moment in the album, yet so clear. And bright. So nice.
The sixth song is yet another single, a more electronic approach by the band, called "Organ Eternal". It starts with a bright light-hearted synth playfully jumping around. Soon the strange chord progression is played on piano and xylophone. Synth and samples open our brains for new bright emotions. And some weird sample comes in. Giving you no clue, what on Earth was that. And then, the orchestra provides some big feeling, low notes. And then we reach the tearing you apart breakdown, slowly, finally we find some peace with synth warming our souls, and then it all continues, Jack singing something quiet, it all repeats almost ad infinitum, leaving us comfortable and filled with joy. The end, and, once again, don't miss the wonderful video, see some green leafs, trees, a girl, who escapes, and study the eyes of TNP members.
The seventh song is another swampy take, called "Nothing Else". If you get this dream vibe from the songs before, like I do, "Nothing else" in fact deals with that issue. It starts with a lonely trumpet. Slowly the symphonic orchestra starts playing, brass, slowly, without drums and with little bass, Elisa sings: "And I wish just for a minute, real life and dreaming swap places. Nothing else, but this...", Jack sings quietly. He mumbles something and a darker moment is here. The song is a bit too long and repetitive, though only because an album must have some song you don't enjoy as much, I say that this one is the least favourite song for me. Yet it too has some specific feeling, some dreamlike calm, yet with a distinct sense of unease, when you wake up with hard thoughts.
The eight song- what a surprise, – called "Dream" is another moodier take, along with "This Guy's In Love With You" and the first half of "Spiral". It has Elisa basically singing alone, she sings right into your ears. And the symphonic orchestra takes over here. Stopping and starting anew. A sense of unease and tense feelings again is here.
The ninth song is the tittle song, called "Field Of Reeds". It closes the album. Here we go into an even deeper swamp of dark sound, like underwater. We have the lowest voice in Britain, Adrian Peacock, singing, and somewhere here, yeah, really, somewhere in this one, is the famous sample of a hawk taking flight. And after the low sounds move away for a bit, Jack sings: "You asked, if the island would float away, if the stars run through me, like the river, like the air, I said "Yes"". Then the low sounds come back. And adds to that "I'm in the wrong place, so I will go away", he shows all the possibilities of his voice, even horrifying, a bit, I should say. And then, all of a sudden, it all turns into a beautifully nostalgic and warm feeling, fueled by magnetic resonator piano. And we are in the field of reeds, where it is always the same day. Brutally beautiful.
This is the end, a nice journey that was. And it is hard to find such an album these days. It is simply wonderful, emotive, deep, a dream world that you have to enter, sort of Narnia. And you can leave, but only with an urge to come back. Every TNP album is a different, yet always an equally cool story, or treatise, if you like. They are unique and unmatched in their uniqueness, every album is coherent. And this album too. Hard to say, which one is the best... Well, but why bother comparing. So, "Field Of Reeds" is one of the best albums I have ever found, yet even that says nothing about it.
These New Puritans:
https://www.facebook.com/TheseNewPuritans
http://www.thesenewpuritans.com/
https://soundcloud.com/these-new-puritans
You can buy the album here:
http://www.thesenewpuritans.com/fieldofreeds/
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/artist/these-new-puritans/id265224116?ign-mpt=uo%3D4
And if you don't have enough money, but can't let yourself download it for free, well, that's actually illegal, after all, here you can listen to it in its entirety:
https://soundcloud.com/these-new-puritans
