These New Puritans
Hidden

THE REVIEW

These New Puritans

HIDDEN, (Angular Recordings, 2010)

"I'm constantly thinking of our legacy, and how it'll be looked back on in ten years' time. The dream would be for people to still not 'get' what we were trying to do" Jack Barnett

To understand the second album by These New Puritans, you have to start here, with this declaration from the frontman/mastermind/dictator of the British band, Jack Barnett. "Hidden" first and foremost wants to be unreachable, hidden as suggested by the title and the eloquent maze on the cover (in strict black nu/cool gothic).

But what TNP are seeking is not a niche or elitism, but a completely new artistic object, something that no one has ever seen before and that leaves the listener bewildered and without roots to cling to and without being able to "get what we are trying to do." Indeed, ambiguity is one of the album's strengths. Hidden is truly something new; forget the These New Puritans of the first "Beat Pyramid" and that British band named after a song by the Fall. But above all, forget everything else; rather, fragment it, and only then can you have an idea of Hidden.

Hidden was born between Prague and Los Angeles and has Jack Barnett as its sole creator; the other band members (Tom Hein-bass, George Barnett-drums, and Sleigh Johnson-keyboard) became aware of the new songs only after the work was completed and thus participated solely in the studio recording and live performances. Joe Daniel, manager of Angular Records, the band's label, let Barnett work in complete freedom for 5 months, waiting to see what would come of it. J.B was thus able to work isolated in his studio and create his new world.

Initially, he started working in separate blocks for each instrument and with some samples and finally tried to assemble the various parts into tracks. And here's Hidden. From the first track "Time Xone", a beautiful cinematic opening made entirely of brass, to the conclusive "5", the album is a finely orchestrated succession of Japanese drums and hammers, there are even melon smashing and sword unsheathing, gentle children's choirs, synthesizers, pianos, and clarinets.

Central is also the use of the Foley technique, used in films to reproduce everyday life sounds. Everything is fragmented but at the same time cohesive, in a circular journey (and also alienated) in one of what could be your album of the year.