bloc party's first album, "silent alarm", was released in the uk in february 2005 on wichita recordings. in the united states, it was released in march 2005 by vice records. it was given a lot of praise. it was voted as the "nme" album of the year for 2005, and reached number three on uk album charts before being certified platinum. the first single from the album, "so here we are", made the top 5 on uk charts. further, the singles "banquet", "helicopter" and "pioneers", managed to reach the uk top 20 but did not do as well as "so here we are". the animated music video for "pioneers" was made by shoreditch-based designers minivegas. it was number one in the "nme" video charts for four weeks.