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Arriving in on a wave of this years next big thing hype, Bloc Party are one band that seem to be able to live up to the expectations. Building from promising unsigned band this time last year to one of the years most eagerly awaited albums via a couple of striking singles and storming live shows, SILENT ALARM is a record that delivers on its promises while still finding time to throw in a few surprises.
Opening strong with the epic pronunciations of LIKE EATING GLASS, all understated beginnings as ethereal guitar lines shimmer their way around scattershot drum beats and throbbing basslines before the hyperactive power chords and yelped vocals kick in. Singer Kele's voice is an energetic bark that ranges from Mark E Smith type spoken salvos to melodic harmonies that announce their presence with glorious vigour.
Also worthy of special mention, Matt Tongs versatile drumming creates schizophrenic rhthyms as spidery beats and hyperactive drum rolls echo throughout the songs. POSITIVE TENSION is a case in point as the drumming creates an eratic centerpoint for the pounding bass lines and subtle guitar effects. The vocal melodies erupting in cryptic messages, flit between Gang Of Four esque chants and anthemic indie rock melodies that hit their mark with laser targeted precision to the midway climax of exploding power chords and crowd pleasing chorus. The previous singles BANQUET and HELICOPTER sound as frantically frenetic as ever, as spiky new wave guitar riffs clash against the angular rhthyms and jerky vocals. BANQUET in particular sounding better than ever with its dance floor oriented bass lines and catchy vocal hooks lending it that essential crossover appeal that's going to see Bloc Party's ascendancy rise during the coming months.
Showing a different side, the tender BLUE LIGHT is the sound of Coldplay raised on a steady diet of Gang Of Four and Fugazi. Gentle guitar lines swell in and out, as Kele's vocals are lent a hushed anticipation that threatens to explode into full throttled chorus at any moment, but manage to hold back to sublime effect.
The similarly toned, THIS MODERN LOVE and SO HERE WE ARE apply the same tactics as shimmering guitar lines are weaved in and out of the gorgeous vocals.
Stumbling slightly, SHE'S HEARING VOICES attempts a kind of angular dance floor hybrid in the style of The Rapture or LCD Soundsystem, while failing to ignite the same sense of twisted abandon. PRICE OF GASOLINE takes a similar trick, again falling short of its attended target ending up a bad Gang Of Four pastiche with faintly embarrassing spoken word sections and curious Americanised cockney inflections throughout.
Aside from a few minor stumbling blocks, SILENT ALARM is the sound of a firmly assured debut album that blows any preconceptions fresh out of the water in an eruption of quality songs and frantic energy. Likely to be massive in a Franz Ferdinand way this year, Bloc Party's year has just got off to a storming start.

Bloc Party is an autonomous unit of un-extraordinary kids reared on pop culture between the years of 1976 and the present day. Like many such kids, between them they eventually concluded that their own attempts to imitate what had informed them could be construed as a worthy variation on the many forms that preceded. They do everything that's required to conform to the currently received ideas of what a band is: ostensibly to play instruments at the same time, but also have a title for the work created.
Kele picked up a guitar when his hands enabled him to do so and his brain gave him the inclination. Russell had already done as much beforehand when they met in 1998. In the fine print of music papers and in telephone conversations they enabled meetings with Gordon and Matt who also had ideas of some relevance to bring to the collective effort. In this sense a band was created.
Henceforth should follow a list of auteurs and musicians that figured in the formative minds of the four as they went about their work. But to do as much seems churlish in an already self-referential world. Suffice to say there would be no band without the efforts of guitar bands formed in British and American towns in the 70s, 80s and 90s, aswell as visionary writers and artists of various kinds whose work has informed the world and culture itself as it stands. The precise names are as good as any you can come up with, in fact probably much, much better.

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