Back in 2013, Bloc Party announced a hiatus; in the interim, frontman Kele released his latest solo album Trick. Now, the band are back once again. Their new album will be called HYMNS, and it's out January 29, 2016 via Infectious Music/BMG/Vagrant. The LP was produced by Tim Bran (La Roux, Scissor Sisters) and Roy Kerr (Ladyhawke, Little Boots), with David Wrench (Caribou, FKA twigs) manning the mixing boards.
During the summer tour of 2013, drummer Matt Tong left the band. Lissack told a Canadian newspaper, the National Post that the band were planning to take an indefinite hiatus following their appearance at the Latitude Festival on 19 July. In October 2013, Kele assembled a DJ Mix for !K7's Tapes mix series, released under the Bloc Party name. In September 2014, Okereke stated that Bloc Party were working on a fifth album. In March 2015, bassist Gordon Moakes tweeted he had parted ways with Bloc Party.
Bloc Party unveiled their new line-up at two intimate gigs in the Los Angeles area (19 August 2015 at The Glass House in Pomona and 20 August 2015 at The Roxy in Los Angeles). Following these performances, Bloc Party also subheadlined FYF Fest in Los Angeles on 22 August 2015. At these shows, the band confirmed that they've finished recording their next album. The shows marked the live debut for new bassist Justin Harris of the Portland, Oregon, indie rock outfit Menomena, who had previously opened several Bloc Party U.S. tour dates in April 2009; and Louise Bartle, who was accidentally announced a month earlier as Bloc Party's drummer by instrument manufacturer Natal Drums in a since-deleted tweet, leading to fan speculation regarding her membership that was ultimately proved correct. [better source needed] These shows also included the first performances of three new songs called "Eden," "Exes," and "The Good News".
I'm a big fan of synths but I didn't play any on this record. Pushing my pedal board to the limit!
Russell Lissack,
In a performance at Maida Vale, Bloc Party performed "The Good News" and "Exes"; hours later, "The Love Within" was featured as "Hottest Record in the World" by Annie Mac on BBC Radio 1. Okereke revealed the band's upcoming fifth album is set to be titled Hymns. The album's release was later confirmed on social media as being January 29, 2016. On 12 October, the band announced via Twitter that the album was produced by Tim Bran and Roy Kerr, and mixed by David Wrench.