Brit Music Scene

Bloc Party - Flux | Single & Video Review

by Dave Parrack on October 26th, 2007

Bloc Party are one of my favourite bands in the world, so whenever I hear they have a new single coming out, I get as excited as a kitten with a ball of wool, just not quite as cute looking.

This song, called Flux, is being released on November 12th and will be on the new digital download only re-release of current album A Weekend In The City.

The band did a similar thing with Two More Years on Silent Alarm, making fans go out and buy the newer, more complete version of the album. This can either be seen as a great marketing coup or a chance to rip fans off, I reserve judgement.

Here’s the official video of the song, and be warned, if you are a Bloc Party fan watching or hearing this for the first time, prepare yourself for a definite change of musical direction…

Ooh, dancey. It’s a weird change of pace for the band, although they’ve always been on the dancier side of Indie. This song is definitely heading mroe down the pure electronica road, which does work surprisingly well for Kele’s voice, and the style of the band as a whole.

Talking of Kele’s voice, what the hell have they done to it? Well, I actually know the answer, they’ve used a vocoder to give it an electronic, almost robotic sound, at least on the radio edit.

I’m really not sure how I feel about that, Kele has a fantastic voice, and one which gives Bloc Party a completely unique sound. Using an electronic instrument to make his voice sound more like everyone elses doesn’t really sound like a step forward.

The video is alright, but nothing we haven’t seen before. It reminded me of the Beastie Boys video for Intergalactic, it has the same Japanese Godzilla b-movie feel to it. I much prefer seeing Bloc Party playing in their videos as I find them quite a visual band. I think that’s why I liked the simplicity of Hunting For Witches so much.

The band also played the song live on the Conan O’Brien show in the states, and we have the video of that too. The big difference in playing it live is less of an electronic, engineered quality obviously, which helps immensely.

So there we have it, is this the way Bloc Party’s sound is heading ready for the next album? They are going on tour and will be writing and recording new material in that time, so it depends if the party infuence gets to them as much as it seems to be doing so far.

This single is good, and definitely a grower, but I’m not sure if I want a whole album from the band like it.

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POSTED IN: Alternative, Bloc Party, Dance, Indie, New Releases, Reviews, Singles, Videos