ARC032: These New Puritans - Beat Pyramid

'Beat Pyramid', their full-length debut, is the next phase in These New Puritans' hyperbolic progression. Recorded alongside Gareth Jones – the producer of albums by Einsturzende Neubauten, Liars, and Wire – its songs are an ever-mutating blur of brash chords, subtle details, and taut rhythms, borne of influences as disparate as Sonic Youth and dubstep, This Heat and Greek pottery, David Lynch and Dr. Feelgood, J Dilla and the 16th century occultist John Dee.

This is a band of extremes. The songs on 'Beat Pyramid' have an immediacy that belies their complex themes: 'Numbers' is a modern pop song about medieval numerology; 'Infinitytinifni' a celebration of the melting of the polar ice-caps set to one chord and three drums; 'Swords Of Truth' a deft slab of death disco named after the terrorist cell linked with the kidnap of BBC journalist Alan Johnston, that may or may not also have been written in homage to the Wu-Tang Clan.

The first (and last) thing you'll hear (bringing the alum full circle from start to end, continuous), 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. "And we thought 'OK, where can we go now?' We resolved the mystery, and that's what the album is. It's not just called 'Beat Pyramid', it is a Beat Pyramid".

Tracklisting:
1. ...ce I Will Say This Twice
2. Numerology (AKA Numbers)
3. Colours
4. Swords of Truth
5. Doppelgänger
6. C. 16th ±
7. En Papier
8. Infinity ytinifnI
9. Elvis
10. £4
11. MKK3
12. 4
13. Navigate-Colours
14. H.
15. Costume
16. I Will Say This Twi…