Party Bloc [ B l ɑ P Ɑ ː t i ] is an independent British alternative rock band from Essex, England. Formed in 2002 around singer Kele Okereke, the group is inspired by Smiths>, Joy Division>, Sonic Youth>, The Cure>, Mogwai>, Siouxsie and the Banshees>, Talking Heads> and in their more recent work, Radiohead>.
Their debut album Silent Alarm, released in 2005, was voted album of the year by the NME.
Russell Lissack and Kele Okereke meet for the first time in 1998 in London. Lissack studied at Bancroft's School, and Okereke at Ilford County High School, then at Trinity Catholic High School. They meet again in 1999 at the Reading Festival and decide to form a group>. Bassist Gordon Moakes joins them after responding to an NME announcement, followed by drummer Matt Tong after an audition. After borrowing several names like Union, The Angel Range, and Diet, the band became Bloc Party in September 2003, a pun on block party. The group will explain never referring to the Soviet bloc>
The group became known in late 2004 by two successive EPs (Bloc Party EP and Little Thoughts EP) that are making a splash in the British and European clubs with a new kind of punk rock. The band releases its first album Silent Alarm in February 2005, which is immediately acclaimed by critics. The group belongs to the nostalgic musical movement of the British new wave of the 1980s that emerges in the mid-2000s with bands such as Franz Ferdinand, Maxïmo Park, or The Bravery.
