Logo
DiS Needs You: Save our site »
  • Logo_home2
  • Records
  • In Depth
  • In Photos
  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • Search
  • Community
  • Records
  • In Depth
  • Blog
  • Community

THIS SITE HAS BEEN ARCHIVED AND CLOSED.

Please join the conversation over on our new forums »

If you really want to read this, try using The Internet Archive.

These New Puritans

Navigate, Navigate

Label: Angular Records Release Date: 21/05/2007

23927
jog_on_tom by Tom King May 17th, 2007

A musical Fin de siècle. Young mystics and chanters let the eternal beat run through them for twelve minutes, and rock and roll finally leaves the 20th century…

Forget the Dior Homme associations (it was originally a ‘collaboration’ for their, ironically, Fall catalogue): this is terminally unfashionable. Reliant on basic riffs and primal rhythms, it’s hypnotic; like staring at a piece of blank paper until the white burns. And as vocals whispering somewhere from the ether and snares like rolling thunder align to your heartbeat and refuse release, you know this is the comedown we’ve all been waiting years for.

Yet it’s not the music itself, nor the band’s elegance with industry that sets them apart; it’s their vision. Willfully dense and difficult, ‘Navigate, Navigate’ tries to say everything at once because they have no reason to believe they can do otherwise; rendering them inarticulate by their own exuberance. Until they choke on a restraining leash of their own creation there’s nothing holding back These New Puritans but themselves.

And as such, this is a pyrrhic review. Nothing can be said about ‘Navigate, Navigate’ that, through rhythm and melody, they haven’t already said themselves.

So listen up, kids. Like the last days of Rome, ‘new rave’ will fall. The dancefloor will not hold. Day-glo hedonism, drug ‘n’ club demolition; everything will collapse. Nothing of substance will remain; nothing of substance having ever been consumed.

Permanence, it would seem, is in the hands of These New Puritans.

  • 9
    Tom King's Score
Log-in to rate this record out of 10
Share on
   
Love DiS? Become a Patron of the site here »


LATEST


  • Drowned in Sound's Albums of the Year 2025


  • Why Music Journalism Matters in 2024


  • Drowned in Sound is back!


  • Drowned in Sound's 21 Favourite Albums of the Year: 2020


  • Drowned in Sound to return as a weekly newsletter


  • Lykke Li's Sadness Is A Blessing



Left-arrow

Shy Child

Noise Won't Stop

Mobback
23928
23933

The Field at Plastic People, Hackney, Wed 02 May

Mobforward
Right-arrow


LATEST

    news


    Drowned in Sound's Albums of the Year 2025

  • 106149
  • news


    Why Music Journalism Matters in 2024

  • 106145

    news


    Drowned in Sound is back!

  • 106143
  • news


    Drowned in Sound's 21 Favourite Albums of the Y...

  • 106141

    news


    Drowned in Sound to return as a weekly newsletter

  • 106139
  • Playlist


    Lykke Li's Sadness Is A Blessing

  • 106138

    Festival Preview


    Glastonbury 2019 preview playlist + ten alterna...

  • 106137
  • Interview


    A Different Kind Of Weird: dEUS on The Ideal Crash

  • 106136
MORE


    Interview


    DiS Meets Marissa Nadler: "If you don’t bare yo...

  • 95803
  • Artist-generated


    Rappers and Melody: An Analysis by Chilly Gonzales

  • 96777

    news


    16 Most Read Articles We Published In 2016

  • 104323
  • Label focus


    Label Focus #1: Drowned in Sound Recordings

  • 21534

    Artist 'n' Artist


    In conversation: Liars and Deerhunter

  • 40700
  • Festival Review


    An alternative music festival or a clap-a-long-...

  • 92375

    feature


    Another band dies at the discotheque: DiS remem...

  • 20732
  • In Depth


    One-Hit Wonders: Our 12 all-time favourites

  • 95806
MORE

Drowned in Sound
  • DROWNED IN SOUND
  • HOME
  • SITE MAP
  • NEWS
  • IN DEPTH
  • IN PHOTOS
  • RECORDS
  • RECOMMENDED RECORDS
  • ALBUMS OF THE YEAR
  • FESTIVAL COVERAGE
  • COMMUNITY
  • MUSIC FORUM
  • SOCIAL BOARD
  • REPORT ERRORS
  • CONTACT US
  • JOIN OUR MAILING LIST
  • FOLLOW DiS
  • GOOGLE+
  • FACEBOOK
  • TWITTER
  • SHUFFLER
  • TUMBLR
  • YOUTUBE
  • RSS FEED
  • RSS EMAIL SUBSCRIBE
  • MISC
  • TERM OF USE
  • PRIVACY
  • ADVERTISING
  • OUR WIKIPEDIA
© 2000-2025 DROWNED IN SOUND