"Today I woke up in a basketball court"

Bloc Party are one of those bands who constantly defy expectations. Starting life as a jittering little indie band in the Franz Ferdinand mould, they blossomed into something altogether more captivating with the gothic chords and tribal rhythms of their second album Weekend In The City.

Last year, they signposted another new direction last year with the pulsing electronica of one-off single Flux - whose autotuned vocals and bubbling Giorgio Moroder bassline resembled nothing more than the world's most fucked-up eurodisco track.

Now they’ve got some new material, which was unveiled on last night's Zane Lowe show. Called Mercury, the single augments Flux's template with discordant brass stabs, sinister synth basslines and some fantastically cheap vocal samples.

With dramatic John Lydon-esque urgency, singer Kele Okereke rants about "bleeding gums", "scars on my shins" and "veins protruding" - suggesting that he's still preoccupied with the dual themes of conflict and social decay.

Unless I've completely misunderstood and he's actually talking about scurvy.

Either way, it is a huge track - one of those ones you'll stick on repeat just to make sure you didn't imagine it. Brilliant stuff.

Bloc Party - Mercury


Bloc Party - Mercury (MP3)

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