Listen: Free These New Puritans download, 'Orion'

You have to wonder how much longer it is before bands start giving away whole albums entirely for free, eh? Oh. Right. Yeah, well, we mustn't scoff at artists who do find the kindness and perhaps common sense in their hearts and heads to offer us, the general public, tracks free to download from their records.

Like Essex boys and girl These New Puritans, who have now made available a track from their current (epic) long player, Hidden, which is really rather, rather good. You can get it by clicking here and doing the usual. It features, as is characteristic, those pounding drums combined with barely-sung Estuary English, with a smidgen of choral vocals slapped in for balance.

The band have also just been confirmed to support Buzz Band of 2009 The XX on their European tour, which includes a healthy handful of dates in the UK.

February:
12 - Angouleme, La Nef
13 - Olympic, Nantes
14 - Toulon, Midi Fest
16 - Amsterdam, Paradiso
17 - Brussels, Botanique
18 - Paris, La Cigalle
21 - Strasbourg, Laiterie
23 - Rome, Brancaleone
24 - Milan
25 - Munich, Backstage Werk
26 - Cologne, Essikfabrik

March:
1 - Brighton, Komedia
2 - London, Shepherd's Bush Empire
3 - London, Shepherd's Bush Empire
5 - Birmingham, Academy 2
6 - Manchester, Academy 2
8 - Leeds, Stylus
9 - Edinburgh, Studio 24
10 - Liverpool, Kazimer