As promised, Bloc Party have officially announced a brand new five track EP, due to be released this coming August.
The Nextwave Sessions EP will be released on August 13 via Frenchkiss Records, and features a number of new songs that have proven a hit with fans at the four-pieces live shows across this summer. Opening track ‘Ratchet’ premiered overnight on BBC Radio 1, and is one of two tracks on the EP that were produced by Dan Carey, who’s also worked with Bat For Lashes, and Hot Chip.
“‘Ratchet’ really came together whilst we were on tour in 2012,” frontman Kele Okereke said in a statement on SPIN. “We started slipping it into the sets at the start of this year just to try it out and the reactions were insane. We knew we had something special.”
But the new EP will be tinged with a hint of sadness for fans. Bloc Party guitarist Russell Lissack last week revealed that the British group are set to go on an indefinite break following the end of the summer festival season in the northern hemisphere.
The news comes off the back an Australian tour and their latest album Four which was one of the most anticipated albums of 2012. The album got stellar reviews with the band’s singer Kele Okerke dubbing it “the best thing we’ve ever done”.
Of course, this isn’t the first time Bloc Party has taken an extended break. Following their third album, Intimacy, the group took a few years off that included break-up rumours, and frontman Kele Okereke’s pursuing a solo career, including an album (The Boxer) an EP (The Hunter) and extensive touring.
Meanwhile the downtime allowed Gordon Moakes, bassist, to become a father, guitarist Russell Lissack to join the touring lineup for Irish rockers Ash, while drummer Matt Tong built a home studio in his basement.
“Once we start taking time off people start doing their own thing. So once people start doing things then you’ll start naturally extending how long we spend apart.”
The extended break also led to a prank, which the band themselves started, in which they claimed Okereke had been booted from the band; which Okereke labelled “a lie that got out of hand,” but that it also “brought us closer together.”
The singer admitted at the time ”there was a big question mark over whether Bloc Party were ever going to make another record again. We were exhausted and bored and distant from one another.”
Following a minor epiphany involving Led Zeppelin’s IV, writing a novel and “the most dramatic year I have experienced in my life”, Okereke and his bandmates decamped to New York with producer Alex Newport (whose CV includes Death Cab For Cutie, City and Colour and The Mars Volta) to complete Four.
But despite releasing some of their best music just last year, the band say that their relationships are still a bit of a”roller coaster”.
“My wife came on tour for two days and said, ‘Your life, I can’t handle it. It’s such a roller coaster of extreme highs and extreme lows,’ ” Lissack said. “That’s quite representative of all the relationships in the band. Maybe we’ll play an amazing show and we’ll be on a real high and then the next day some minor thing will happen and everyone hates each other.”
