These New Puritans: Beat Pyramid

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.