“Bloc Party started with just Kele and I, and we used to write the songs together, and we found other people and grew from that. It feels like that’s happened again,” says Russell. They started writing together, just the two of them, in 2014, and were joined at various stages by the two new members who have made Bloc Party a four-piece again: bassist Justin Harris, whom the band met in his previous guise as part of the Portland indie rock band Menomena, and drummer Louise Bartle, a 21-year-old that the pair discovered on YouTube, and who “blew us away. It’s good to have someone bringing that energy of doing it for the first time. It’s made us all excited about going forward.”
As the title suggests, the fifth Bloc Party record is about faith and devotion, but it is not, Kele insists, a religious epiphany. “I grew up in a religious house so I’m fully aware of the imagery, but I’m not Christian. It’s not something I subscribe to.” Instead, the concept came to him after seeing the author Hanif Kureishi, whom Kele has admired since he was at school, talk at the Southbank Centre in London. The author of My Beautiful Laundrette and Intimacy was discussing evangelical art and how unfashionable it has become. “And that point stuck with me because it seemed like for me music had originated in a religious place. The first music I ever heard was hymns at school. I started to think, if I was going to make music that had a spiritual dimension, that was sacred to me and to the things that I held important, how would I do it?”
The result is a record that sounds like a band growing and changing, pushing new sounds via new approaches, and resulting in more free, less constricted Bloc Party. HYMNS marks a departure for the band sonically, too, with Kele and Russell trying sounds and approaches that they have never previously explored.
“It’s still a very live record,” says Russell. “Everything has been played, though it doesn’t necessarily sound like that. We take a lot of influence from electronic music, for example, and then try to bring that into a completely different environment.” Kele is astounded at the results. “What Russell is doing now is completely blowing my mind. He’s using the guitar as an instrument of white noise, as well as a melodic tool. I’m super-excited about getting this music in front of people.”
In August Bloc Party played two sold out shows in the US at The Glass House, Pomona, and The Roxy, Los Angeles, before an acclaimed appearance at FYF Fest, where they headlined The Lawn stage. They are confirmed to headline the Hostess Club Weekender in Japan, and Falls Festival in Australia this winter, and play a run of sold out intimate European shows in November-December. All dates are below; see www.bloc.party for full details:
09 November - O2 ABC, Glasgow, UK
23 November - Hostess Club Weekender, Studio Coast, Tokyo, JP
27 November - Paradiso, Amsterdam, NL - SOLD OUT
28 November - Live Music Hall, Koln, DE - SOLD OUT
29 November - Astra Kulturhaus, Berlin, DE - SOLD OUT
01 December - Alhambra, Paris, FR - SOLD OUT
02 December - Cirque Royal, Brussels, BL - SOLD OUT
03 December - Albert Hall, Manchester, UK - SOLD OUT
04 December - St John at Hackney, London, UK - SOLD OUT
30 December - Falls Festival, Lorne, AU
30 December - Falls Festival, Marion Bay, AU
01 January - Falls Festival, Byron Bay, AU
05 January - Forum Theatre, Melbourne, AU
07 January - Enmore Theatre, Sydney, AU
10 January - Southbound Festival, Perth, AU
Bloc Party are:
Kele Okereke (vocals, guitar), Russell Lissack (guitar), Justin Harris (bass) and Louise Bartle (drums).
On Saturday March 5th 2016 it s all about electronic music at the Turbinenhalle Oberhausen. The E-tropolis festival is in for a hell of a ride with a real electro-invasion of top–class bands. There will be something for every taste, future pop, EBM, industrial, electro…., so fasten your seatbelts for bands like, AND ONE , HOCICO , SUICIDE COMMANDO (vintage set), WINTERKÄLTE, DIORAMA , THE CASSANDRA COMPEX…..and many more
Last year with over 4,000 visitors the E-Tropolis festival set a new visitor record, and this edition will even be better. So all you dark electronic lovers, please mark this day in your calendar
Below you can see some highlights from last year’s edition. More info about line up or tickets can be found at their website.
Click here for a review of the 2015-edition.
Many new dates added in tour-list and now you can check out when the band will be near your place. Right now AMBASSADOR21 working in studio on the new album. Lots of new material already recorded and the band will play new tracks on the next live shows.
The album scheduled to be released in early Fall 2016.
22-24.10.15 - PRSPCT RVLT Festival / Rotterdam, NL
27.11.15 - Boccaccio / Monza (Milan), IT
28.11.15 - Next Emerson / Florence, IT
04.12.15 - Wave / Rimini, IT
05.12.15 - DalVerme / Rome, IT
23.01.16 - Malá Amerika / Brno, CZ
02.04.16 - Freaked Studio / Reims, FR
09.04.16 - Supamolly / Berlin, DE
09.04.16 - ILLEGAL TRADE @ Supamolly / Berlin, DE
15-17.04.16 - Bangface Weekender / Southport, UK
In 2007, Daniel Graves released the album Blood Spills Not Far from the Wound under the moniker "Necessary Response". It was a collection of songs originally intended for release on Close to Human, the debut "Aesthetic Perfection" album, but their less aggressive nature lead to their removal. At the time, his European label felt that Aesthetic Perfection should be a strictly "aggrotech" act and not confuse the scene with such a varied and dynamic record. Young and impressionable, Graves relented and allowed the label to split the band in two leading to the creation of "Necessary Response". After one record, Daniel declared the project dead and focused entirely on Aesthetic Perfection.
After nearly a decade of bitterness and regret towards what he viewed as a desecration of his artistic vision, renewed interest in the project lead Daniel to resurrect the long defunct project for a one-off concert in his hometown of Los Angeles. To prepare for the show, each song was deconstructed and rebuilt, track by track using the original recordings. Every effort was taken to stay true to the original versions while improving the sonic quality. To Daniel's surprise, the process softened him on the album and he saw his bitterness towards it wane. He found himself excited by the prospect of taking the record back and releasing it on his own terms. "Necessary Response" was indeed dead, but only in name, the songs could survive and continue on as Aesthetic Perfection, as it had always been intended.
Blood Spills Not Far from the Wound is back from the dead! Revived with newly recorded vocals, and new artwork. Remixed, re-mastered, and lead by the unreleased B-Side "Never Enough". Also features a piano rework of "Devotion" with Lauren Krothe (as heard on Imperfect and the title track from All Beauty Destroyed). This is not your typical album re-release, it is a complete re-envisioning of the record that never was. Graves has finally brought this album back into the Aesthetic Perfection fold, bringing the band one step closer to what he's always wanted it to be.
01. Open Wound
02. Spilling Blood
03. Forever
04. Vapor
05. Tomorrow
06. Never Enough
07. For All The Lost
08. Dying In The Worst Way
09. Elements
10. Devotion
John Murphy passed away on October 11. He is best known as the percussionist of Neofolk cult icon Death in June, and as a collaborator of Current 93, NON, :Of The Wand and the Moon:, Blood Axis, Whitehouse and Ex-The Velvet Underground singer Nico, and founding member of Last Dominion Lost, Knifeladder and Shining Vril.
Being a very prolific protagonist of the UK Post Industrial scene, his instrumental contributions are audible on amazing records like Whitehouse’s Psychopathia Sexualis, Current 93’s Dog’s Blood Order, Death in June’s and Boyd Rice’s collaboration album Alarm Agents – among many others. The Melbourne-born drummer, percussionist and multi-instrumentalist co-founded the punk band News before wandering off to the UK, eventually joining The Associates and Gene Loves Jezebel as a session member, and getting more and more involved with the blooming and fruitful scene that formed around the remains of Throbbing Gristle.
John Murphy never stopped working on music before his death. Our thoughts are with him and his relatives.
Source: www.post-punk.com
