You probably already know this, but just for the novices anyway: Jack Bevan sings about things like numerology and the nature of infinity and is not impartial to wearing chainmail vests. He and his band, middle class Southend residents just out of (or I think in one case still in) their teens all, have been criticised by the likes of NME features editor James McMahon as brainy, pretentious “enemies of rock music.” Their music is an invertedly grand and exhilarating mash-up of post-punk, krautrock, and maybe a bit of experimental hip-hop too thrown in for good measure. Rushing loops, pounding rhythms, mangled guitars, gleefully abrasive keyboards”¦ yeah. There is a magic in These New Puritans’ world.The true spirit of post-punk runs through this record, and that’s not just a sound thing- it's an approach thing, that brilliant sense of making rock music within a frame of open pretension and possibility drunk-on creativity. Beat Pyramid is a sprawling 16-track, but only 35-minute, statement of These New Puritan’s wonderful potential. Their songs are frequently packed with more ideas than just four people seem able to handle. Plus at no point do they ever even seem to consider self-indulgently wasting any time (or perhaps they’re just too hyperactive for wasting any time to be the opposite of an indulgence for them?)- admittedly a lot of the tracks are just short ambient linking pieces, like the ones that bookend the album, bringing it back round in a circle on itself (a magnificently pretentious and, in fact, rather cloying on the ears gesture made just about forgivable due to it fitting in with many of the album’s lyrical themes).When they do bring the songs, they never meander, or repeat on themselves. They just get more and more exciting and are even more packed with ideas. This goes for songs like ‘Elvis’ and ‘Numerology (aka Numbers)’, which approach something traditionally rocky, as well as the more experimental or dreamy tracks such as ‘Infinity ytinifnI’ and ‘MKK3’ as well. But probably the album’s two ultimate highlights come with ‘Swords of Truth’ towards the beginning and ‘Costume’ at the end. ‘Swords of Truth’ distinguishes itself with a brilliant keyboard horn sound which I would say was “almost reminiscent of grime” if that didn’t sound like such a patronising “ooh look guitar is co-opting hip-hop influences how original” type statement (but it's true). ‘Costume’ meanwhile brings the non-cycle part of the album to a close with a lovely piece of swaying, awkward, and actually remarkably sweet-sounding pop music.But perhaps the best thing about Beat Pyramid is that for all its cyclical ending and beginning and its high ideas, it doesn’t feel like an end point- it feels like an album by a band who still have so much more room to grow and to develop their sound. And that’s a very exciting prospect indeed (they have even claimed to be bored of this one in interviews already). Here’s hoping they do, but even if they don’t, well, we still have this album to enjoy. 85%Links These New Puritans [official site] [myspace] [buy it]