Released : 2005
It all sounded so mid noughties indie. Talking to Scott McLennan of Rip It Up Australia in 2005, Bloc Party drummer Matt Tong was caught up in a lexicon which was as brief as it felt thrilling, making excited references to hanging out at Glastonbury with peers the Kaiser Chiefs, of appearing on the pioneer LA indie sleaze photoblog Cobra Snake and offering criticism of establishment figures like Bono. It’s so authentic you can almost taste it.
Forming at the tail end of the previous century by Kele Okereke and Russell Lissack, the quartet eventually found Tong via a presumably stunning audition after bassist Gordon Moakes arrived following the placement of an advert in the NME. As if to give the story a further layer of period smarts, they were also discovered by the ubiquitous Steve Lamacq and then given a further boost by Franz Ferdinand‘s Alex Kapranos, whom Okereke handed a copy of their their debut single She’s Hearing Voices to in person after a show.
This was also a time where more often than not new outfits failed to provide substance beyond the early hype – witness how few of them made it even into the following decade – however the reception for Bloc Party’s debut album Silent Alarm confounded even their expectations. It’s opener showcased in particular Tong’s double jointed update on New Order’s Stephen Morris, a rhythmic masterclass that allowed Okereke to vocally flit around it. Heard again almost twenty years later, it’s simpler time evocations are easy to draw on, but then again, not many people can name an Art Brut song now, can they?
The Voice Of Unreason 
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