BEAT PYRAMID

A friend said to me recently, "Every time I play the lottery, I fucking lose!" The numbers game has always and will be supremely seductive; the paradox of logic and disillusion will keep us going back and scratching off Pick-10's until we're bust. In rock music, numbers occupy a mythical perch -- imagine Led Zeppelin without the roman numerals or Joey Ramone without the 1-2-3-4's. These New Puritans won't be dispensing with the myth anytime soon. Along with their numerology come codes, palindromes, puzzles, and a nice dose of twitch-spit-scratch. Art-pretension in rock has never had it better. These New Puritans spent 2007 touring endlessly in the UK, backing their Now Pluvial EP. Around this time last year, these guys were getting a lot of attention for their sprawling fifteen-minute track "Navigate, Navigate", that served as the musical backdrop for Hedi Slimane's final runway show. FULL REVIEW