小简介
2005年揭开序幕，我们看到Bloc Party这支来自英国伦敦的队伍，得以在芸芸新晋乐团之中突围而出。
年初出版的英国音乐周报NME带来的「The Faces Of ‘05」封面专题特集，Bloc Party便以封面人物的姿态先拔头筹、成为焦点，其「05新人王」的姿态亦不言而喻。
今天Bloc Party的炙手可热之势，委实不禁叫人联想到在去年锋芒毕露的苏格兰格拉斯哥乐队Franz Ferdinand。凑巧的是彼此同是在1月初被点名为该年头号新希望乐队，继而随即紧接在2月份发表他们教外界引颈以待的处男专辑，天时地利人和各方面都配合得天衣无缝，彷佛是在稳操胜券下发动攻势。
或者，背后能达至天时地利人和，看穿了还不过是唱片宣企与音乐媒体的紧密配合。然而毋庸置疑的是，Bloc Party的而且确是一支教人赞叹不已的优秀乐队，打造出爽劲、紧凑、慑人而充满张力的Art School Punk音乐。
甚么新Franz Ferdinand？
Bloc Party在去年初露锋芒，名气不胫而走，导致为他们招来「新Franz Ferdinand」的美誉。
Equally inspired by Sonic Youth, Joy Division, Gang of Four, and the Cure, East London art-punkers Bloc Party mix angular sonics with pop structures. Consisting of singer/guitarist Kele Okereke, guitarist Russell Lissack, bassist/singer Gordon Moakes, and drummer Matt Tong, the band was formerly known as Angel Range and Union before settling on Bloc Party. Okereke and Lissack met each other through mutual friends at the Reading Festival, and discovered that they had musical tastes as well as friends in common. Tong and Moakes soon joined their collaboration, and under the name Union, the quartet issued a demo in early 2003; later that year, they switched their name to Bloc Party.
The group's demo and concerts began to attract attention from both the press and their peers; Okereke sent a copy of the demo to Franz Ferdinand, who invited them to play at the Domino tenth anniversary bash in fall 2003. Early the following year, the band released one of the demo's tracks, "She's Hearing Voices," as a single on Trash Aesthetics. A few months later, Banquet/Staying Fat arrived on Moshi Moshi. That spring, Bloc Party signed to Wichita to release their full-length album in the U.K., and to Dim Mak for U.S. distribution. The band spent summer 2004 recording and touring. Late that summer, Bloc Party, which collected the band's first two singles, arrived in the States. Their debut album, Silent Alarm, appeared early in 2005 and was released by Vice Records in the States to widespread acclaim. Later that year, Silent Alarm Remixed capitalized on the band's burgeoning popularity, as did the 2006 EP Helicopter. A Weekend in the City, Bloc Party's second proper album, followed in 2007.
