Bloc PartyIntimacyV2
Bloc Party frontman Kele Okereke mentioned back when the
Silent Alarm era was still in full swing, that the band's sound was far from written in stone. At least in his eyes. The band were more likely to introduce violin than keyboards, he said.
That promise was poised on second album
Weekend in the City but never really eventuated. Rather, the idea of deconstructing the "two guitars, bass and drums" was applied in the editing suite rather than the songwriting or instrumentation itself.
With third album
Intimacy the band makes this transition complete. Bloc Party are now firmly “mixed in the box” and boy do they sound like it. Fans wishing for a return to “classic” Bloc Party hinted at in the minimal press coverage for this rush-released download album (
blocparty.com) will be sorely disappointed. The work of two separate producers - Paul Epworth (
Silent Alarm) and Jacknife Lee (
A Weekend in the City) -
Intimacy sounds at times like it's being pulled apart at the seams. At near every turn and in every nook there’s a squelch, a processed guitar, an edit ... a fucking laser. There are lasers on this record! There’s not a song that isn’t overtaken at some point by a plug-in. That isn't to say it's lifeless; it's a multi-layered, bold and at times exciting piece of work. But it sure does strip the set of melody.
If you're wondering what realm this V.3 computerisation of Bloc Party exists in, consider that where their reference points were once Wire and Gang of Four, they're now Basement Jaxx and Chemical Brothers. If a more "doomy" version. Opener ‘Ares’ sounds EXACTLY like the Brothers' 'Setting Sun'. It even has that sub-bass WHOOMP on the second bass drum beat, while heavily processed guitars squeeze through the speakers. It's all in the red. Much like first single 'Mercury' it's drama overload, and for the most part mirrored by Okereke's gnashing of teeth.
'Halo' resembles the band of old, as does 'Trojan Horse' - the difference being that their spacey guitars and editing tricks obliterate almost every other instrument. Frantic riffage lurks, but it's applied now to keyboards and effects boxes rather than guitars which, when present, are filtered and squeezed through so much code they resemble nothing of the sort. ‘Zephyrus’ relies on nothing but the drum pattern from Radiohead’s
In Rainbows
opener ‘2 Step’ tied to a looped, monotone humming, before dramatic
strings and a lush human choir echo the singer. Okereke's break up
theme continues as he sings "All you say in your
quietest voice is that I needed you as much as they do". The loneliness
implied is perhaps off-set by the choir around him.
Though not immune to this rampant trickery, it's the melancholic slow burners that work best on on
Intimacy. 'Biko', apparently a term of affection used by Okereke's parents and not a reference to the apartheid activist Stephen Biko, is used to invoke a departed friend
("So I've been writing these songs for you / to steal you from your grave / we can dance in the front room again"). It's lovingly offset by the minutiae of relationships, serving to cut through the production sheen:
"Your tears are cleansing / I left your blueberries in the fridge". His thundering angst on other tracks can seem a little ham-fisted but amongst the pulsing chimes and bells of 'Signs', Okereke sings
"I see signs now all the time, that you're not there to sleep in / I believe in anything that brings you back home to me" and there's a clarity to his hurt. By next track 'One Month Off', that "classic" Bloc Party on steroids is back again, threatening to "be cruel as you" and "fight fire with firewood". The lasers are back.
Closing track 'Ion Square' is perhaps the the highlight here, and the best example of when this new phase of Bloc Party works. A sweet groove is established and the song unfolds and builds. There's still steam sounds and backwards cymbals and synths and drum machines and bleeps and blips...but it's a bed for the group to rise above rather than be smothered with. Life returns and much like the arc of the lyrics, there's a resolution to this adrenalised, eclectic and awkward album. Oh and it kind of sounds like a band of people playing together. Which, essentially, Bloc Party are no longer. This is strictly a cut and paste affair. It was all along, of course, but with the scaffolding/band tucked out of sight, it reads as Kele Okereke and a computer. Which post breakup, perhaps isn't far from the truth.