On A Weekend in the City, the follow up to their much-hyped debut Silent Alarm, Bloc Party took their spunky indie rock deep into the London streets with glossy, nightclub numbers. Now the band is back with the Flux digital EP, which coincides with the special digital reissue of Weekend, complete with a fresh single in the vein of the LP's thumping midnight pulse -- the sparkling beat-backed ballad "Flux."
The track once again pairs the band with Grammy Award-winning producer Jacknife Lee (Snow Patrol, U2) for a colossal club track overflowing with electronic textures. While the live version -- which Bloc Party recently premiered on Late Night with Conan O'Brien -- had the band's neo-new wave guitars at the forefront, the studio take favors hypnotic hisses and the atmospherics of a MicroKorg synthesizer, inviting a frantic strobe light and a pair of quick feet. Frontman Kele Okereke is hot-wired through a vocoder (almost like R&B crooner T-Pain) but not even robotic effects can drain the emotion from his signature wail as he insists, "We need to talk!" Sure, Kele, we'll have a sit down -- but not until we finish dancing. The digital-only Flux EP, complete with select remixes and bonus tracks, drops Nov. 20 via the Vice label.
Now Hear This:
Bloc Party - "Flux"
On the Web:
Bloc Party at MySpace
blocparty.com
Talk: Will Bloc Party get the streets shimmying with "Flux"?
