[Inhaler]

Kele from Bloc Party announced today that they will be returning with a new album in the not too distant future!

http://www.bbc.co.uk...rammes/p00mycpn

Any other Bloc fans here?

[Julia]

I'm not really a fan. I just knew a few songs from the radio, like "I still remember" Than I heard Kele's solo song, and that was not mine, I don't like that solo song.
It was strange to hear that they kick Kele out of the band last year, without saying anything to him. So when did they get back together?

[Inhaler]

I'm not really a fan. I just knew a few songs from the radio, like "I still remember" Than I heard Kele's solo song, and that was not mine, I don't like that solo song.
It was strange to hear that they kick Kele out of the band last year, without saying anything to him. So when did they get back together?

They never split it was just a publicity stunt - i really used to dislike Bloc Party but thier 1st & 3rd albums are really good - give them a try if you get a chance!

Some of Kele's solo stuff was good/some bad.

[Julia]

It was just publicity? Ohh bad, I don't like something like that! If that would do a band I really love I would be really mad!

[Inhaler]

Bloc Party announce new album 'Four'


Bloc Party have announced that they will release their new album 'Four' on August 20th via Frenchkiss Records.

BLOCPARTY:FOUR

hello internet.
we have just finished mixing our new record. i am very proud of it. it is the best thing that we have ever done and finishing this record has taken us on quite a journey. There have been babies, breakdowns, tantrums and hospitalisations but its finally here. we started making this record in NY in the winter of 2011. we didn’t want to let the world know so we told a lie that got out of hand but it made us laugh in the process, which brought us closer together.

We could have come clean from the get go but to be honest we had no idea if anything was going to come out of these sessions. there was a big question mark over whether bloc party were ever going to make another record again. we were exhausted and bored and distant from one another. so in 2010 we all did our own thing, gordon had a baby, russell joined ash, matt built a studio in his basement with his bare hands and i moved to new york to finish a book that i had been writing for the last 3 years.

after my solo record i wanted to have a year without music in a different part of the world. i had four records with me, led zeppelin 4, deftones white pony, nicki minaj’s mix tape beam me up scotty and al green’s greatest hits and that was enough. i just wanted to drift and watch the world from a distance and i truly had intended to switch off but then 2011 happened; in terms of global history, the most dramatic year i have experienced in my entire life. it became impossible to switch off from the world when it seemed history was rewriting itself day after day. so i did what i always try to do to make sense of the world, i started writing lyrics and something became clear to me, i needed to put my band back together, i missed my friends. even though i had made a record by myself i missed the way that my band worked, how little improvisations and suggestions would then go on to spark other ideas in me like wildfire. being in bloc party always forced me to think on my feet.
it turns out that everyone had been feeling the same way so we arranged to decamp to NY and start writing our fourth record and in that time it became clear to us that the only reason to be in this band was to make the sort of music that only the four of us could make.
in the past we have tried to hide the passion with which we perform, tried to obscure it, manipulate it so it didn’t resemble us anymore. we have learnt a lot from those years but we feel with this record we have to move forward, we have to challenge ourselves by not relying on protools or the invisible grid that seems to be mapping out all of popular music these days. we have to push ourselves to the limit of our abilities or else there is no point in carrying on.

In the past there has been so much written about what our records have meant, so much context and back story but i am adamant that this time these songs will stand on their own. this record is the sound of four people in a room, loving what they do and doing it to the best of their ability. it is the sound that only the four of us could make and i am prouder of it than any record we have ever made.
and just in case you were wondering, the name of this record is four
kele
31. May 2012

[Inhaler]

Bloc Party played their first comeback show in Glasgow last night (June 19), where they showcased a swathe of new material from their forthcoming album 'Four'.

Although the band played a rehearsal show at London's HMV Forum on Monday (June 18) in front of friends and family, last night was their first "proper" UK show for over three years and featured a set with seven new songs as well as a host of old favourites.

"It's been a long time, this has been the most beautiful day I've ever experienced in Glasgow," said lead singer Kele Okereke, shortly after the band opened their set with two new songs, titled '3x3' and 'So He Begins To Lie'.

While the crowd were enthusiastic in their response to the new tracks, they reserved their energy for the older tracks such as 'Hunted For Witches' and, in particular, 'Helicopter' – which started a circle pit at the front of the crowd.

Of the new songs played tonight, 'Team A' – which Kele quickly pointed out is definitely "not called 'The A Team'" – gets a huge reaction from the fans, but 'Truth' looked and sounded most likely to become a hit.

Although some may have worried whether they'd be able to pick up where they left off, the faultless segue between 'Song For Clay (Disappear Here)' and 'Banquet' was enough to prove any doubters wrong. Kele and guitarist Russell Lissack even jovially pushed each other about during 'One More Chance'.

"This has been the best possible start," said Kele as he grinned from ear to ear after a storming 'Like Eating Glass'. The band ended their set with 'Flux', before joining together to take a bow and salute the elated crowd.

Bloc Party played:

'3x3'
'So He Begins To Lie'
'Mercury'
'Hunting For Witches'
'Real Talk'
'Octopus'
'Song For Clay (Disappear Here)'
'Banquet'
'Day Four'
'Team A'
'One More Chance'
'This Modern Love'
'Helicopter'
'Truth'
'Ares'
'Like Eating Glass'
'Flux'

'3x3'

3x3


Team A

[Inhaler]

New single Octopus

[Inhaler]

New song - Day Four
Listen on Soundcloud.com


Taken from the new album 'Four' out on the 20th of August (UK). Pre-order on iTunes now: http://smarturl.it/blocpartyfour
International dates may vary.

[Inhaler]

New album trailer

[Inhaler]

In late 2010, Kele Okereke, Russell Lissack, Gordon Moakes and Matt Tong went into the studio. The result is 'Four' - the fourth album by Bloc Party, greater than the sum of its four parts. The album will be released on the 20th of August but you can listen to the album in its entirety exclusively before it's released.

http://four.blocparty.com/

[Inhaler]

Seriously buy the new album 'Four' spotify it or whatever, just listen to it because its amazing!

Here's Bloc Party performing Team A on KCRW

[kitty]

Thanxs carl for the video.
They come in my town in october, I have to go at the concert.

[twinette]

Seriously, who have you paid for that, Kitty ?? Everybody comes to Bordeaux for a gig this year

The album is on Spotify, i'm gonna listen it, i've never really listen them but everybody says that this new album is really great !!

[Inhaler]

They did a Maida Vale session on BBC Radio 1 earlier this week

[Inhaler]

NME only score the new album 7/10

7 / 10
It’s 2005 and the ’80s post-punk revival is in full swing. The ‘wiry’ guitar sound reigns. The word ‘angular’ is used, on average, 25.3 times per NME. ‘New York Cool’ lives, The Rapture are the world’s hippest band and The Libertines couple post-punk with bohemian glamour to reinvent London. Indie is reborn sexy. Franz Ferdinand are very sexy. Everyone is happy with themselves. Everyone except Kele Okereke, Russell Lissack, Gordon Moakes and Matt Tong, the four men in Bloc Party.

While indie toasted its own cleverness, in true post-punk fashion BP began asking tough questions about love, hate, themselves and, most of all, modern Britain. With 2005’s ‘Silent Alarm’, the Londoners rejected their peers’ retro-ism to become a band of their time, tapping into a 21st century inner conflict every bit as palpable as the Thatcherite tension which post-punk fed from. The title was a metaphor for quiet desperation, a nationwide epidemic Radiohead prophesied in 1997 with ‘OK Computer’, but which Bloc Party were living through. The post-millennial discontent, the wearying pace of life, the information fatigue – the Londoners captured all this with their sharp, relentless, manic music. This was the album as wake-up call,a la post-punk. Indie at its most relevant.

There’s a sense with comeback album, ‘Four’, that Kele and co are returning to an empty stadium. That they’re not relevant any more. The post-punk revival is long dead, and four years after their last record ‘Intimacy’, their fans are all grown up. So are Bloc Party.

It’s rare in rock that men in their mid-30s produce something that resonates with the times. ‘Four’ is not ‘Kid A’. But at its best it excels with a glut of sensitive pop tunes which, although no substitute for exhilarating, provocative post-punk, prove Bloc Party are still capable of depth. ‘The Healing’’s tumbling guitar embodies a peaceful redemption, as Kele falsettos “Take this lifeline”, while ‘Truth’ is a driving live set-closer replete with vocal hooks and emotional peaks. ‘Day Four’ combines The Police’s ‘Every Breath You Take’ and tender-mode Wild Beasts as, carried on keening strings and tinkling guitar, Kele’s angelic vocal evaporates into the mists. Like their 2005 single ‘This Modern Love’, it’s surging but sad. Equally moving is ‘Hard Talk’, a slow ballad about growing to trust your lover that tentatively unfurls. “My body is yours”, concludes Kele, sounding at peace.

But it’s not all good. At its worst, bits of ‘Four’ sound weary, like a band manufacturing ‘anthems’ using crude ballast and clenched exertion in an effort to force attention-grabbing BIGNESS. It’s a stylistic muddle. For starters, smoky delta blues has no place in the Bloc Party vocabulary (‘Coliseum’). Neither does Dinosaur Jr alt-rock (‘Kettling’) or hardcore punk (‘We’re Not Good People’). Or, indeed, nu-metal breakdowns. Where’s the artistic single-mindedness? Where’s the restraint, the daggers, the punch? Perhaps the lack of subtlety is an attempt to make up for ‘Intimacy’’s failed avant-bleepery.

Matters improve greatly with ‘3x3’, edgier for its insane operatic chutzpah (Kele goes full Pavarotti over a face-melting grand finale) and ‘Team A’, which earns its rocky cataclysm (Kele sneering “I’m gonna ruin your life”) by building tension prior to detonation, just like the Party of old. ‘So He Begins To Lie’ is again reminiscent of the musically intelligent rock of their youth, with the band using their brains instead of their fists. It’s spiky and fresh, if blunted by amp distortion. On ‘Octopus’, meanwhile, guitarist Russell Lissack unleashes his best guitar trick – a glitchy blur that evolves into Muse-ish fret-shredding. But it’s ‘VALIS’ that steals the show. It just flies. Great melodies, great hooks, great climax. They haven’t forgotten how to do it, they just need to do it more.

John Calvert

[kitty]

http://www.lemouv.fr/player

Bock party now in le mouv, live from rock en seine....

[Inhaler]

New video for 'Kettling'

[Jamie Cal]

Loved 'Octopus', hated 'Four', unfortunately.