When These New Puritans first hit the scene with their 2008 album Beat Pyramid, they came off largely as latecomers to the post-punk revival. But their new album, Hidden (to be released in the U.S. March 2nd) is a revelation: it signals a shift of talent, ambition and experimentalism the way OK Computer did for Radiohead, coming after The Bends. Above all, Hidden is a very “now” sounding album: it sounds like reportage from musical minds who have forced themselves to remain aggressively open to what’s happening around them.

Hidden’s first single, “We Want War,” is demonstrative of this. Released at the tail end of last year, it quickly became one of the best songs of 2009 regardless. “We Want War” startled for a number of reasons. For one, it demonstrated the inevitable collision course that dubstep and indie were going to have: what’s incredible is how well it works. Icy Hyperdub-style thunder drums, martial synth riffs and low-end exclamations combine with an urgent yet whispery vocal and buzzing guitars to create both a vibe of societal unease and an unstoppable array of hooks that recalls, well, Radiohead first messing around with IDM. And when it all comes to a head with a Sun Ra style jazz breakdown, well… It’s pretty dazzling. It’s natural, then, that this dubstep-influenced track would get an actual dubstep remix, with Sheffield beatsmith Ghost Hunter on re-rub duties. Surprisingly, Ghost Hunter dispenses with the heavy grooves of the original and creates a hazy abstraction of kaleidoscopic synths and skittering rhythms: this is the kinda dubstep you could see Brian Eno getting down with, fo’ sho’… While definitely not dancefloor bizness, Ghost Hunter’s re-rub makes for undeniably evocative listening, landing somewhere around the soundscapes of Nosaj Thing and the melancholy electronic grooves of Clubroot rather than in the main room, which is a very interesting place to marinate, indeed…