I found this record on Deptford market, and shelled out the requisite cash because I liked the cover. To this day it remains the best 50p I've ever spent. The song itself is a Pet Shop Boys cover of a Sterling Void song and is remixed by Void himself on one side. On the flip the remixing duties fall to hip-house pioneer Tyree Cooper (the super-dooper producer, in his own words) and this is the better of the two mixes.

Over a primitive house stomp, all hissing hi-hats and faux-disco handclaps, the original synth bass line pads and stalks along simultaneous to a writhing, squelching acid squiggle, constantly shape-shifting and morphing out of all recognition. The stacatto piano vamps and diva vocals combine to soak the track in MDMA fuelled euphoria without straying into overt cheesyness. Each of the components of the track drift in and out of the mix, and builds towards a huge hands-in-the-air breakdown and drop. This is the sound of Chicago party starters meeting English arty-farters with blissful results. In the words of Tyree, "Pet Shop Boys get busy one time".

How was 2007?

It’s been alright. I don’t like to dwell on things.

Okay. Well, the album was originally scheduled for a November release, but has been held until late January. What did you think about that?

I was verging in on suicidal. Well, that’s an exaggeration. I have to control everything about the band, I think it’s really important; I want to move on as quickly as possible from everything, every couple of days. The album being delayed kinda deconstructed that though. I did get to record the ‘Elvis’ EP and ‘FFF’ so it worked out positively in the end. Maybe no one would have bought it in November; it’s got more chance of sweeping the globe in January.

And you’ve changed a lot over that period, as the new EP (recorded after the album) is testament to..

Hmm. I’m embarrassed about being in a band, so it’s hard for me to answer musiciany questions. I mean…. we change every second. We’re always trying to re-answer the question “what are These New Puritans”. Every moment, every second, every day we ask it and answer it in a different way. We want to be everything.

Well, the common (mis)conception of TNPs is that you’re either a kinda high-end arty London scene band, or a new-rave band. You do seem to have been lumped in with both to some extent; the Vice tour and festival, the Dior Homme collaboration, playing at Fabric, the Digital Penetration compilation…

We mean all things to all people. It’s all good. We’re always in flight from ourselves. People can try and pin us down, but the band is always different from ourselves, not least what other people think. I don’t really care at all. I want to do all things. Lots of our songs do different things. ‘Elvis’ is a pop song, and we’re releasing it because we can be a pop group. It’s just funny; we’re not new-rave. There are many things that could offend me more…

How about the ‘Southend scene’ that seems to have been created around you and the Horrors, Ipso Facto etc…?

What I’ve invented for us is the Thames Estuary tradition, starting with (JMW) Turner and Daniel Defoe, and running to Dr Feelgood and then us. That’s where I imagine we fit in.  It’s a really great place. It used to be overrun by malaria and the average man used to have 20 wives, they just had to import more and more women. This was only a hundred years ago and that’s true. It’s a murky place, and it’s an easy place to map into a feeling to make murky music. I always say in London everything’s been done; in Southend nothing’s been done. But I think all those bands are too scientific in what they do, they get caught up in the science of music. Our album is magic music; we bridge the gap. It bridges the scientific with the magic.

What kind of magic?

I mean real magic. It’s all rituals. When we made the album was the idea behind it was to make a ‘Beat Pyramid’- it’s us inscribing the pyramid into the air, literally cutting in the airwaves...

“I’m writing in the airwaves”…

Exactly! In a thousand years there are codes that won’t be deciphered in our music. It’s always hard with interviews. Every word I’ve just said is a lie. It’s impossible to answer. Everything I’m saying is code, and it’s filtered through all the questions and interviews I’ve been asked before, and I feel I can never really communicate what we are. I mean it’s not just about music; there’s something above us we can’t grasp. That’s what makes us These New Puritans.

I’ve always thought that because a few kids are having lots of fun I could never possibly imagine ‘new-raving’ somewhere I’m justified in listening to darker stuff like you or Burial or Gang Gang Dance…

I feel an affinity with Burial. We’re weird kindred spirits or something… There are quite a lot of similarities. Did you know we existed on the internet before we existed in reality? We put pictures up and then music and only played gigs a few months later because people liked it. I think people think that it’s a contrived thing- that we’re trying to act intelligent. But it’s an accident, we’re just pop music. It’s not that elaborate is it? It’s just strums…

You seem to make out there’s more to the band sometimes, and less others…? Maybe because you consider TNP and yourself completely separate?

I do a lot of music under a lot of psydeums. But I’m not ashamed of TNPs, it’s just my job is to direct. It’s like making a film, the others are the actors and so I’ll make sure the bigger picture has other strands that weave together to make the band, and they’ll carry out their tasks.  

Tell us about the album then.  I like how streams of ideas weave throughout; parts from older songs resurface as new… and the looping, circular structure…

There are lots of ideas, I could go on. The reason why we called it that is that we wanted to construct a pyramid with its secrets and geometry. There are themes running throughout; mirroring, cycles, silver. I think it’s important there’s an overriding theme to it, because songs like ‘Doppelganger’ and ‘Elvis’ don’t fit together at all. When I was doing it I was thinking of electronic sounds, literally electronic waves.  It’s probably too pop for an intellectual audience and too intellectual for a pop audience. Not intellectual… maybe just self indulgent.

Perhaps the most striking and original aspect is how rhythm heavy it is... there’s a real bond between the melody and rhythm. This sounds stupid, but do you think there’s a genetic connection between you and George? And how do you write the songs when they’re so unconventional…

Yeah, genetics… Me and George have been playing since we were really young. We’ve had lots of imagined bands; TNPs are the first one which has become real. So it probably helps. Like the film metaphor, I’m the all seeing eye and have to make sure the whole things come together and the others take care of the minutiae. I lot of the time I’ll write them on the computer and say ‘interpret that in a TNP way’ or ‘play like hip-hip’. I don’t care about the riff or anything; it’s not that musical. We’re a band of drummers really.

What’s next for the band?

I’m starting to draw everything together. The next thing is going to be Steve Reich meets dancehall. Do you know Vybz Kartel? It’ll be ensemble stuff like that. My eventual aim is to do nothing on stage- just sit there and let everyone else do everything. I mean… the best bit about being in a band is writing album credits. I’m basically in a band so I can write credits….
 
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Earlier, at the junction of Kingsland Road and Old Street, I had nearly killed us both by choosing to run the road on a red light. Jack said something. It didn’t really make much sense then, but perhaps it does now. Aptly, it leaves us in circularity. For circularity, read inevitability; for inevitability, read circularity…

“You should begin the article”, said Jack, “with my death…”

Our first monthly Friday night at the Amersham was incredibly fucking stressful. The original line up was Skepta, Ebony Bones, Bass Clef, Tomb Crew and Shitting Fists. But Ebony Bones cancelled a week before. And then Skepta called us at eightish and said he didn't really want to play because of some trouble he'd had the last night. So we lowered the door price to £3 and let everyone in. Much stress later, Skepta turns up. We coulda pulled it all but we're not, after all, gonna spoil our own party. And anyway, it was worth it all just for one text saying "safe party. skepta".

If a post-Angular "New Cross Scene" actually still exists rather than just occasionally lapping at our dogshit crusted hi-tops like yesterdays pissy rain water, then the New Cross Inn probably had it's in-party a few Fridays back. The Pepys, the Saudis, Joe Fox, Talk Taxis all played to the usual crowd of scraggily haired indie kids.. but we missed all that because we were in the pub. We did, though, accidentally go to the afterparty. It was in some weird half squat half terraced house. I can't remember much apart from tripping over mattresses in the dark, getting told that the host "didn't like tight trousers", and going for a ramble in Telegraph Hill Park on the 3am stumble home.

The best gig I've been to this month (...and year) was Pre, Rolo Tomassi and the Mae-Shi at Bardens Boudoir in Dalston. But that's not in New Cross, so we'll ignore it. These New Puritans are turning into one hell of a band, and were awesome at the Amersham. As was African Boy. Ipso Factor and Dead Kids both played at Goldsmiths Union . They're both really good in opposite ways. Another thing: I was walking to Goldsmiths listening to Burial's new album. It was raining when I left the house, so I had both hood and brolly up. By the time I had got to the library and closed my umbrella it was sunny. I don't know when it had stopped raining, but I must have looked a right cunt walking along New Cross Road. Burial's grainy realer-than-real-life textures had me fooled. Fucking nature.

It's good more and more people are coming to SE14. The Amersham seems to have drawn a new clientele from the breezeblocks, nicely dressed professionals who smell nice and buy rounds with chouse. I guess they feel safe going out in the area now, or at least within the Amersham. They definitely weren't there when I used to watch Ireland lost at football in it's horrible old smoky back room. Some unadventurous people will probably be put off by the East London Line tube closing for a few years. But fuck em. Someone more clever than me said not to worry, when they come back we'll all have grown wings and talons.

Things should finally start coming together. I hope so, things have been bastards recently. I'm hungover and I need to stop getting drunk and doing stupid things with lovely people. See you in twenty nine...