The UK's relentless Xeroxing of its heroes has
made it de rigueur to draw easy parallels, so it's tempting to say the post-punk
revival has finally produced its own pixilated copy of The Fall in new Southend
spitters These New Puritans. Certainly Mark E. Smith's Mancunian
mumbles—as well as the smart stab-and-spit attack of other era notables
like Gang Of Four and Wire—loom large over the blistering declamatory
statements and angular skittering of the group's debut, Beat Pyramid; it's right there in the
name, after all. But while These New Puritans similarly dig repetition and
they're never gonna lose it, the upstart quartet has another quarter-century of
influences up its tattered sleeve: Try as they might to distance themselves
from the eager-to-please likes of Klaxons, the singles "C. 16th" and "Elvis"
have a modern indie-dance kick that should similarly put emaciated asses in
motion, and surprisingly sensitive ballads like "Navigate" and "Costume" could
only come from a group of shrewd post-millennials who actually care about
moving units. Futures and pasts, indeed.
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