Photo: Wenn
Bloc Party's bassist Gordon Moakes has announced he is no longer "involved in the latest incarnation of Bloc Party".
As Line Of Best Fit reports, Moakes is the second founding member to leave following the departure of drummer Matt Tong last year. Only vocalist Kele Okereke and Russell Lissack remain.
Posting on twitter in his guise as Young Legionnaire, Moakes announced he would no longer be part of the band, although it remains unclear whether this is a permanent split.
Update for fans: I'm not involved in the latest incarnation of Bloc Party. I'm now focussing on Young Legionnaire. Gordy #rhythmsection4hire
— Young Legionnaire (@YNGLegionnaire) March 20, 2015
I'm based in Austin, TX now - as well as the new YL album in the works, I've got a couple of projects on the go here, news of which soon! Gx
— Young Legionnaire (@YNGLegionnaire) March 20, 2015
Moakes' replacement has yet to be announced. However in better Bloc Party news frontman Kele Okereke has confirmed that his band are working on a new album.
In an interview with Australian radio station Triple J, Okereke said that the band had begun work on their fifth LP, - the follow-up to 2012's Four.
"I guess it's the first time that I have talked about it but we are making a record at the moment," Okereke said. "It's sounding like nothing that we've done before but that's what everyone always says."
Okereke was clear to clarify that fans shouldn't expect new music imminently: "We're at the writing/recording phase. We've started recording - I think we have about 18 [song] ideas and we're going to lay them down properly in the next few months."
He continued: "We've always had very disparate elements to our music ... this record feels like an evolution of where we were," Okereke continued. "So far there's nothing that I can compare it to really in terms of other musicians, whereas in the past I always could - we were always trying to reference something else."
Okereke also debuted a preview of a new song 'Exes' on acoustic guitar. Listen to it below.
The new album will mark the 10th anniversary of Bloc Party's debut album Silent Alarm.
As previously reported Okereke is uncomfortable with marking the occasion.
"I think the most impressive thing that we could do as a band would be to respond [by] looking forward and keep on making music to say that we’re still motivated," he told Music Feeds last year. "I think that’s more important than revival or some kind of nostalgic experience. I feel that the band isn’t some record – at this point it’s a collection of records – and I feel that the best way to honour that would be to make more records, not just to look back to where we were.
"I don’t think that sort of thing does much good for artists. I always cringe a little bit when you hear about bands going around just touring on a kind of anniversary record. I feel that it just seems a little bit cynical."
