Bloc Party - 'Helicopter' (Wichita)
5/5
By: Lauren Gallagher
You know it. Guitars assault. Drums pounce. Bass persists. Fiendish and unrelenting, 'Helicopter' is Bloc Party's fiercest release to date. If you weren't already aware of these rockfeedback favourites, you now have no choice.
'Helicopter' doesn't allow voluntary participation; it makes you captive to the wiles of Bloc Party, whose staccato spikiness never fails to mesmerize. Kele Okereke's lead vocals insist without preaching, bassist Gordon Moakes's harmonies haunt, while serrated guitar teases with fits and starts, in the end succeeding in seduction. It is a dark and stormy little number. 'Tulips,' the b-side to this summer's 'Little Thoughts,' gets a tender treatment with the 'Minotaur Shock Remix,' suited to the genteel nature of the song, as it sleekly persuades a ballad into a hip-shaker.
Unless one was deaf when 'She's Hearing Voices' was released in early 2004, it was clear Bloc Party were making a statement to be heard loud and clear. They were. Enter: industry flurry. Done: UK/Europe deal with Wichita and a stateside signing with Dim Mak. Subsequent singles - the dancefloor burner 'Banquet' and the charged pleader 'Little Thoughts' garnered Bloc Party a growing fanbase. In a short year they have headlined 3 UK tours (w/ latest tour SOLD OUT), thrilled daytime crowds at Reading/Leeds, hit up the US, Canada, and Japan, and are about to embark on a support slot with Interpol in Europe this winter. With their debut album slated for early 2005, 'Helicopter' will have to satiate fans in the meantime.
Often quick rises to fame are met with scepticism, but Bloc Party remain an exception. Despite audible influences such as Les Savy Fav, Gang of Four, or The Futureheads, all comparisons fall short. Bloc Party are an inimitable foursome: no-one else sounds quite like them. And that sound is sonic bliss.
Artists in this article: Bloc Party
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