These New Puritans

Originating in Southend, England, These New Puritans built an early following for their wide-ranging art-rock experiments with a 2008 debut that fused post-punk textures reminiscent of the Fall and PiL alongside electronic-dance textures and a polished visual style. After the breakthrough success of their second album, Hidden, in 2010, the group reversed direction on Field of Reeds three years later, embracing an expansive neo-classical palette. Emerging from a five-year hiatus, the band resurfaced in early 2019 with the stylistically varied Inside the Rose.

Twin brothers Jack Barnett, who handles vocals, guitars, and production, and George Barnett assembled the lineup in 2006 alongside keyboardist Sophie Sleigh-Johnson and bassist Thomas Hein, all still teenagers at formation. Their sharp, visually inventive approach quickly drew notice in the British music press, prompting soon-to-depart Christian Dior designer Hedi Slimane to commission Barnett for music to accompany his fall 2007 Dior Homme collection. That composition, “Navigate, Navigate,” received its premiere in Paris during Slimane’s February runway presentation. Later the same year, in October, Angular Records issued the band’s EP Now Pluvial; the track “Navigate, Navigate” followed as a U.S. 12-inch single in February 2008, setting the stage for the March arrival of their debut album, Beat Pyramid. Co-produced by Bark Psychosis’s Graham Sutton, the next release, Hidden, reached stores in early 2010, climbed to number ten on the U.K. Independent Albums chart, and was named Album of the Year by NME. After Sophie Sleigh-Johnson’s exit and other lineup shifts, These New Puritans delivered Field of Reeds in 2013, an unconventional yet warmly received orchestral work that repositioned the group as a neo-classical ensemble incorporating jazz inflections. Following an extended period of inactivity, the Barnett brothers resurfaced in 2018 as a duo and issued the wide-ranging single “Into the Fire,” their first new material in five years; the song subsequently appeared on Inside the Rose, released in March 2019.