“Hologram” is the third single from These New Puritans’ second album Hidden. I like the purple drank feel of the goth-romantic Salem remix. You get the album version for the piano-humping official video.

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SALEM turn “Hologram,” from These New Puritans’s recent Hidden album into something druggy and romantic. The remix appears on the upcoming “Hologram” single. Have a slow listen:

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These New Puritans followup the “We Want War” video’s ballistics-influenced bodies and splashes and with another clip focusing on folks without shirts moving in slow-motion. This is “Attack Music” and they’re modern dancers in training. The clip was directed by the London-based, !WOWOW!-associated artist Matthew Stone. It would also make an inspirational Nike ad.

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The video for the 7-minute “We Went War” was an arresting way to introduce These New Puritans’ second album Hidden, a collection that includes an array of sounds, including the thud of “a melon with cream crackers attached struck by a hammer, used to simulate the sound of a human head being smashed.” These also mentioned the record would include “six-foot Japanese taiko drums, a thirteen piece brass and woodwind ensemble, sub-heavy beats, prepared piano, a children’s choir,” etc. You get the kids in “Orion” along with the warlike thud of the aforementioned taiko drums, some not previously mentioned chains, looped voices, and plenty of majestic tension. On paper it might sound like, basically, the kids discovered Matmos after Beat Pyramid and decided to go crazy in the studio, but they’ve figured out how to incorporate all these new elements into their post-punk, creating a compelling, challenging sound that goes beyond past Mark E. Smith-isms.

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My favorite These New Puritans track is still the looping 15-minute “Navigate, Navigate” that they wrote for Hedi Slimane’s Autumn 2007 fashion show, so I’m glad to see the extended oddness of “We Want War,” the 7-minute first single from the Brits’ second album Hidden. As far as the sophomore album goes, their UK label notes:

Hidden features six-foot Japanese Taiko drums, a thirteen piece brass and woodwind ensemble, sub-heavy beats, prepared piano, a children’s choir, Foley recording techniques (including a melon with cream crackers attached struck by a hammer, used to simulate the sound of a human head being smashed), and the ethereal voice of Heather Marlatt from dream-pop group Salem.

The majestic splashes, slow-motion floating, and icy mirroring of the ballistics-influenced Daniel Askill-directed video go nicely with all of the above.

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This year in music was great and we’rea gonna let it finish (sorry), but in terms of notable album releases the ship has sailed. No offense, 30 Seconds To Mars. While the Gummys’ virtual poll booth remains open for a few more days (did we mention filling out the ballot enters you to win the 50 Best Albums Of The Decade on vinyl and an Apple TV?), we’re gonna look to the future, Conan. And we like the sound of it! If 2010 is gonna be anything like 2009 — skyrocketing unemployment, a Summer Of Death, flu and vampire pandemics — we’re gonna need a bigger headphones. But today we’ve got 25 reasons why 2010 might even be > 2009. Our list was limited to releases (some of which we’ve even heard) that have been confirmed (or close enough), but don’t stop believin’ in Strokes IV, guys.

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Before we kick off the bulk of this week’s CMJ coverage, we’re gonna look all the way back to last week’s Iceland Airwaves Festival. Stereogum sent photog Abbey Braden overseas to take it all in. When not commiserating with locals about our countries’ financial crises, Abbey caught dozens of sets from familiar standbys (Fuck Buttons, Mae Shi, Simian Mobile Disco) and Icelandic buzz bands (Shogun, Weapons, Ultra Mega Technobandið Stefán) alike. Vampire Weekend was there, too! There are a ton of wonderful photos (and videos) for you after the jump, along with a brief but educational report from our correspondent to set the scene.

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One of our favorite sets of SXSW was These New Puritans’ post-punk ass-kicking at Antone’s. We liked it so much, we shot a video of “Elvis.” Just about two months later, we have audio tracks from the show that have been mixed down so that we can now relive the night in an even more pristine glory. The three tunes are the aforementioned “Elvis,” the appropriately chainmailed “Swords Of Truth,” and “Numbers.” If you haven’t, uh, Fall-en for the young Brits before, this just might convert you.

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These New Puritans pulled off one of our favorite performances down in Austin and we still can’t get enough of the epic, extended “Navigate, Navigate” (we remain less excited about the Loving Hand remix. Showing depth, the young Brits have put together a dark, trippy, flame-licked video for Beat Pyramid standout “Swords Of Truth.” Sporting chainmail, Jack Barnett sings-a-long over double exposures, S&M masks of some sort, various album art-echoing triangles, and browned fields that sorta remind us of The Wicker Man. But, like, the post-punk version.

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Hours before this performance, we met with Jack Barnett and his New Puritans on Red River St. Video camera on, mic in hand, we asked about TNP’s first trip to the States (because we care). Actually they didn’t give the impression it was going all that well, or maybe they just weren’t impressed by what they’d seen so far of SXSW … but whatever apathy we thought we picked up on evaporated in Antone’s house of blues Wednesday night. It’s not that the band loosened up — no, they stayed tightly wound — but there was more palpable energy coming from each of Jack’s arm raises — and more cool from each repeated line — than we had reason to expect. Like we said earlier, the set was easily a highlight of the night, but the coiled post-punk of “Elvis” is already our song of SXSW ’08. And we thought it’d be nice to bring you there.

You should have this already — but if not … you’re welcome.

These New Puritans – “Elvis” (MP3)

Enjoy.