Jack Barnett, the scrawny, intense singer/songwriter with English post-art rockers These New Puritans, is stood on a rest area off a German autobahn on his way to Freiburg. This can be an unedifying business at the best of times, but the banality of the situation seems a world away from the sonic sorcery of his band's music, as well as his continued enthusiastic prognosis of Japanese culture.

"I've been to Japan a couple of times. I love the culture, I love the music, the food (and) the people. I've spent most of my time in Tokyo. I'd like to think that was representative. I'm really looking forward to Japan."

On paper, these may seem like the artificial words of a band member duty-bound to speak in glowing terms, but to think this way would be wrong: These New Puritans do not deal in the false and the desultory. Barnett's words are spoken with genuine zest and backed up with actions. Among the myriad instruments that help create his borderline- inexpressible creative vision are peculiar — 180-cm Japanese drums, which, along with other instruments, will be played by Japanese musicians during the band's tour next week.