Field of Reeds

NMEアルバム年間ベスト1位他、世界中様々なメディアから大絶賛された2ndアルバム『ヒドゥン』から約3年・・・更なる進化を遂げたジーズ・ニュー・ピューリタンズが新作を引っ提げカムバック! ザ・ホラーズやザ・キルズなどと共に、ここ日本でも高い人気を保つジーズ・ニュー・ピューリタンズが、更なる進化を遂げて遂にニュー・アルバムをリリース! 前作『ヒドゥン』は、ピッチフォーク8.2点、PASTE8.9点など様々なメディアから高得点を獲得し、10年のNMEアルバム年間ベスト1位を獲得するなど大絶賛を受けた。昨年ビョークにリミックスを提供するなどアーティストとして確固たるポジションを築きあげた彼ら。前作リリース以降の2010年6月に単独公演を、そして翌年のサマーソニックにも出演するなど、ここ日本でもその人気は高い。今作は、マーキュリー・プライズを受賞して現在UKを中心に人気沸騰中のアルト・ジェイ、ローカル・ネイティヴス等注目の新人が数多く所属する＜インフェクシャス＞移籍後初となる作品という事も有り、既に期待値が高まっている。

With their risky third album, These New Puritans abandoned the angular dance-punk of Beat Pyramid and the gloomy electronic beats of Hidden to reinvent themselves once again for Field of Reeds, a record as indebted to classical scores and avant-garde jazz as rock. Taking a hands-off, live approach to the recording process, and allowing open space and emptiness to take precedence over beats, the music has a disturbing, dystopian feel to it, swinging from detached to nightmarish before resolving into something lovingly tranquil. Some of the best songs, like "Fragment 2," "V (Island Song)," and "Spiral" (which sounds like a fever-dream version of Bjork and Thom Yorke's "I've Seen It All" duet from the Dancer in the Dark soundtrack), thrive in this push and pull between atonal dissonance and sheer beauty. Even These New Puritans' most stark numbers, while often lacking a concrete backbeat or definitive structure, are bursting with details and ideas. Ambient textures, constructed from melancholic horns and eerie analog synthesizer tones, add a wavering undercurrent that is often hair-raising and haunting. The production is equally unconventional. After writing the material in Essex and Amsterdam, Jack Barnett fleshed out the parts with his brother George and Tom Hein before recording in London, Gloucester, and Berlin with new honey-voiced Portuguese singer Elisa Rodrigues, utilizing an unusual magnetic resonator piano and meticulously detailing the songs with field recordings, including breaking glass and the screaming of an actual hawk. This perfectionism, present in the sonics and in the complex arrangements, makes Field of Reeds the most challenging title in their catalog and also the most groundbreaking. ~ Jason Lymangrover|

With their risky third album, These New Puritans abandoned the angular dance-punk of Beat Pyramid and the gloomy electronic beats of Hidden to reinvent themselves once again for Field of Reeds, a record as indebted to classical scores and avant-garde jazz as rock. Taking a hands-off, live approach to the recording process, and allowing open space and emptiness to take precedence over beats, the music has a disturbing, dystopian feel to it, swinging from detached to nightmarish before resolving into something lovingly tranquil. Some of the best songs, like "Fragment 2," "V (Island Song)," and "Spiral" (which sounds like a fever-dream version of Bjork and Thom Yorke's "I've Seen It All" duet from the Dancer in the Dark soundtrack), thrive in this push and pull between atonal dissonance and sheer beauty. Even These New Puritans' most stark numbers, while often lacking a concrete backbeat or definitive structure, are bursting with details and ideas. Ambient textures, constructed from melancholic horns and eerie analog synthesizer tones, add a wavering undercurrent that is often hair-raising and haunting. The production is equally unconventional. After writing the material in Essex and Amsterdam, Jack Barnett fleshed out the parts with his brother George and Tom Hein before recording in London, Gloucester, and Berlin with new honey-voiced Portuguese singer Elisa Rodrigues, utilizing an unusual magnetic resonator piano and meticulously detailing the songs with field recordings, including breaking glass and the screaming of an actual hawk. This perfectionism, present in the sonics and in the complex arrangements, makes Field of Reeds the most challenging title in their catalog and also the most groundbreaking. ~ Jason Lymangrover

高い評価を得た前作から約3年、ポスト・パンクの新鋭がこの3作目で描き出したのは、人間の深く澱んだ内面をえぐり出すかのような、恐ろしく幻惑的な音世界だ。あからさまな攻撃性は薄まり、静寂のなかで金管楽器やストリングス、ピアノ、重厚なコーラス、さらにガラスの破壊音が不穏に鳴り響く。あまりに美しいこの暗黒サウンドから、きっとアナタは耳目を逸らせないだろう……。
bounce (C)柴田かずえ