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Post by jaxxalude on Jan 18, 2007 7:04:12 GMT -5
OK, try to forget all the New Rave tag bulls**t the Brit press (aka NME) has been trying to feed us all, and how they are supposedly the leaders of it all. What you're getting here is a band that does the electro/indie/rock clash in a way where heavy riffs, pop melodies and dance grooves positively collide like they've always shared a kinship from the dawn of times. Their debut album, Myths Of The Near Future, is out next Monday in the UK. No word yet on a US release. Tracklist: 01. Two Receivers 02. Atlantis To Interzone 03. Golden Skans 04. Totem On The Timeline 05. As Above So Below 06. Isle Of Her 07. Gravity's Rainbow 08. Forgotten Works 09. Magick 10. It's Not Over Yet 11. Four Horsemen Of 2012 / (Untitled) www.klaxons.net/www.myspace.com/klaxons/
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oscillations.
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Post by oscillations. on Jan 18, 2007 10:13:33 GMT -5
Hurrah for the infiltration of obscure acts into the music news section! haha.
But in all honesty, I like Klaxons despite every reason I shouldn't. But I do think Hadouken! will beat them at their own game - I find their "grime wave" (?!) sound to be more inspired.
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Post by jaxxalude on Jan 22, 2007 10:15:01 GMT -5
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oscillations.
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Post by oscillations. on Jan 22, 2007 10:18:39 GMT -5
It isn't gayer than Mika.
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Post by jaxxalude on Jan 23, 2007 8:36:13 GMT -5
Dummy Mag Monthlyklaxons myths of the near future (polydor) 8/10One thing missing from last summer's talk of Day-Glo love-ins was the music actually paying homage to SL2 and Altern 8. But even if indie kids didn’t initiate a mass exodus to the candy kingdom (except maybe fashion-wise), a few bands have emerged that finally put the 'rave' in 'nu rave' – most prominently London four-piece Klaxons, who zoomed in with an old skool edge to their indie shuffle. Their debut opens with menacing piano chimes reminiscent of Tubular Bells on Two Receivers, and the vocals stretch out to the horizon, but just when it seems the band have left earth entirely, Atlantis to Interzone bursts in with a cry of ‘DJ!’ to remind us of the band’s legendary live shows. The cosmic Golden Skans and Specials tribute Forgotten Works is an indication that Klaxons were always nu-rave sheep in space rock clothing; but they really shine on tracks like Isle of Her and Four Horsemen of 2012, merging dampened riffs with fraught synths and hurtling along like Screaming Lord Sutch in a K-Hole. Gemma Kenyon
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juhn
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Post by juhn on Jan 23, 2007 9:08:24 GMT -5
Don't like them at all. For some reason they remind me of the Kaiser Chiefs.
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oscillations.
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Post by oscillations. on Jan 23, 2007 17:21:27 GMT -5
way to compare apples and oranges
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oscillations.
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Post by oscillations. on Jan 23, 2007 17:35:41 GMT -5
I saw it all over soulseek. I'll probably buy it when it comes out in the US, but for now, I'll settle for the tracks I already have.
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Post by juhn on Jan 23, 2007 18:33:18 GMT -5
way to compare apples and oranges Wasn't comparing. They just reminded me of them. Big difference there.
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oscillations.
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Post by oscillations. on Jan 23, 2007 18:50:06 GMT -5
It's a bit of a strange association to make, that's all. But hey. Your perceptions are yours & yours alone. :)
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Post by jaxxalude on Jan 23, 2007 18:54:13 GMT -5
I'm starting to seriously think about sending this thread to either the Klaxons' or the Kaiser Chiefs' people...
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Post by jaxxalude on Jan 24, 2007 14:22:40 GMT -5
GigwiseKlaxons Turned Down The Chance To Open WembleyIn support of Muse...by Daniel Melia on 24/01/2007 Klaxons have revealed that they turned down the chance to play Wembley Stadium in support of Muse.However, they’re now regretting the decision and are desperately trying to reverse the situation. Jamie Reynolds told MTV: "It was the drummer who asked us. It was quite a drunken night down the pub and I just said, 'Nah'. I don't know why, I didn't mean it!” "I have watched them from when they first started. I first saw them at Glastonbury and for them to say that (about one of our live shows) is a massive complement." Singer James Righton added: "(He) got the chance to open up Wembley stadium. Offically the first ever gig at Wembley and Jamie turned it down!" "We haven’t turned it down officially and we're trying to sort it out. Please! We would love to play!" Gutted…
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Post by jaxxalude on Jan 24, 2007 16:34:19 GMT -5
Observer Music MonthlyKlaxons, Myths of the Near Future Simon Reynolds is intrigued by the boldly uncool nu ravers who aren't afraid of grandeur or melodrama - or Greek quests If you find any hoop-la about nu rave mystifying and can't understand why anyone would even want to hark back to the days of glowsticks and gurning anyway, just visit the site hardcorewillneverdie.com/ and check out the archived rave footage. An eruption of madness on a mass scale, rave was the last blast of full-tilt futurism in mainstream British music. No wonder that new bands looking for nourishment have turned to the early Nineties, especially now that post-punk's retro seam has been mined to exhaustion. Attracted to rave's Dionysian daftness and euphoric fervour, the Klaxons pay homage with their name (those air-horns tooted by E monsters), covers of old skool anthems like 'The Bouncer', and the title of their prettiest tune 'Golden Skans', named after a spectacular light-machine touted on rave flyers back in the day. What's mystifying is why the group draw so little on technorave's sonic principles. Rather than samples, synth-stabs, and programmed beats, they use indie-rock's guitar/bass/drums, occasionally chucking in a noise that sounds like a 'rave alert' siren-riff from some '91 ardkore anthem, but mostly sounding like a rowdier, more rough-hewn take on Franz Ferdinand's dance-punk. Or like Panic At The Disco! actually at the disco. It's this emo-like quality of feverish melodrama that connects the Klaxons to rave's E-motional hysteria. That, and the fantastical lyrics, which come across like Baby D's 'Let Me Be Your Fantasy' meets Frank Herbert's Dune, all treasure, grandeur, adventure, vision-quest. 'As Above So Below' trips out to imagery of 'galloping galloping beams faster/joining together and still faster.' What's endearing about the Klaxons is their lack of cool (pure rave, that) and their confusion. You get the sense they don't know exactly what they're aiming for, and the resulting mish-mash of crude energy and unfocused ambition leaves the listener gloriously befuddled. There's a queasy but enjoyable not-quite-rightness to songs like 'Atlantis To Interzone' and 'Gravity's Rainbow' that comes from the band using the wrong tools for the job - trying to build a non-rock music using bog-standard rock instrumentation, struggling to make their shaky indie voices soar and ache like hypergasmic house divas. The best thing on Myths of the Near Future is the most aberrant-sounding: 'Isle of Her', with its Greek mythology-inspired lyrics about seafarers rowing across the Mediterranean in search of some kind of paradise. It sounds like nothing you've ever heard, and in that sense is truer to the spirit of '92 than any meticulously accurate homage to rave. Download: 'Isle of Her'; 'Golden Skans'; 'Forgotten Works' =================================//==================================== I must add that the writer in question, Simon Reynolds, is one of my favourite music scribes ever. You can check some of his archive stuff right here.
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Post by jaxxalude on Jan 25, 2007 14:39:52 GMT -5
BBC Collectiveklaxons myths of the near future(universal) Down with the kids.Sweaty dinnerlady lookalikes, Klaxons beam fluoro optimism and magickal futurism, necking delirious happy hardcore piano lines and books by Burroughs, Ballard, Huxley and Aleister Crowley. They are peculiarly earnest ultra-nerds soundtracking a gobbledegook Utopia; a complete dumb-smart mess of stuff and great if you’re 20, blitzed off your tits, having feel-ups at the front, at uni. Three great tunes, and some Blur-alikes later they’re a million-pound brand coining it on youth’s boredom with skag rock, folk whimsy and wet indie. Klaxons serve up Day-Glo pagan ritual and pop silliness on toast, and kids get sick on it. Stuart Turnbull 25 January 07
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Post by jaxxalude on Jan 25, 2007 14:41:38 GMT -5
For those who want to listen to the album via legal ways ;), here it is, courtesy of NME.COM. And here is probably the first great album of 2007. :)
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Post by jaxxalude on Jan 29, 2007 15:47:39 GMT -5
PlaylouderReading some of the broadsheet papers this week you'd be forgiven for thinking that most rock journalists had been secretly replaced by Chelsea Pensioners and members of Tunbridge Wells' WI. All the bile directed at this young band of lo-fi punk/dance pranksters seems to be aimed at the fact that new rave doesn't sound like 'proper' old rave. This is rather like listening to some middle-aged pub bore going on about Beyonce not being proper R&B like The Small Faces, or Green Day not really being punk at all. Like, whatever, Dad. Of course, even the most cursory examination of 'Myths of the Near Future' reveal it to have myriad links to old rave anyway. On the inventive and invigorating 'Atlantis To Interzone' there is a massive and knowing nod to Altern-8 as well as a great big chunk of Meat Beat Manifesto's warehouse classic 'Radio Babylon'. These young pups obviously know more about rave than some of their more significantly older critics. The real link is one of emotion and intent though. Tracks such as 'Two Receivers' are epic and sweeping, drenched in reverb, pianos and swirling synths and are custom designed to make you feel like laughing, dancing or crying while off your noggin on cheap MDMA powder, youthful enthusiasm and running around waving glow sticks in the air. So this isn't a house music record but no one but an idiot would expect it to be. It is however a massive sigh of release for everyone who was waiting with dread. Let's have it straight Klaxons, in the relatively sober surroundings of your own home, weren't really that good. Their own singles, to be blunt, tended to be awful and not reflective in any way of the energy they created on stage. But in eight short weeks holed up with Simian Mobile Disco cracking the whip as they practiced their arses off, they've pulled it out of the bag at the last minute. New tracks like 'Golden Skans' and 'As Above So Below' bear up well next to muscular old ones like 'Gravity's Rainbow' and 'Magick'. Most reassuring however, is the fact that they managed to pin down Grace's 'It's Not Over Yet', with overdriven guitars, falsetto vocals and psych pop haze; it certainly makes a difference from the extremely shonky and shouty version that they used to play live. If it's house music you're after then you won't like this because this (sorry to point out the bloody obvious) is something completely different. And that, as far as we're concerned, is the whole point. John Doran
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Post by jaxxalude on Jan 29, 2007 16:03:45 GMT -5
Drowned In SoundKlaxons: Myths of the Near FutureOut: 29/01/2007 Label: Polydor For one minute, let's have some perspective. Let us all take a step back from the hyperbole, the 'hype' and the coining of new genres. Genres invented with the sole purpose of allowing lazy journalists, chattering around tables in JD Wetherspoon public houses, to appear more 'on it' than their contemporaries. We're now on neutral ground: this is Villa Park during a League Cup semi-final, or the venue where you dump your long-term partner, somewhere away from your respective houses. In front of us sits Myths Of The Near Future; it's the debut album by New Cross three-piece Klaxons. You've not heard of them before, and they've certainly not yet been lucky enough to secure coverage in every music publication going. Opener 'Two Receivers' is dark and brooding; its production is wide, far-reaching and produces a track that, despite being overtly simple in structure and composition, engulfs the listener and everything around them. Where the magic of Klaxons appears to lie thus far, then, is in their Lego-like building of simple ideas into atmospheric pop songs. An album along these lines sounds fantastic, thankyouverymuch. Of course, as soon as 'Atlantis To Interzone' starts screaming "DJ!" at me, the comfort zone they've ushered in is cast aside like an axe through the skull of a small child. In the best way possible. As each track plays out more and more sides to this musical beast are revealed: the effortless radio-friendly pop of current single 'Golden Skans' gives way to the relentless electro-punk of 'Totem On The Timeline'. At every corner, the band seem to be able to surprise - be it with their oblique literary references, melodic prowess or just how massive they, alongside producer James Ford, have managed to make this album sound. A few tracks down the line and ‘Magick’ reopens Klaxons' can of darkness, but penetrates every line with floor-quaking energy and rhythmic intensity. This is leftfield pop at its most daring and is all the more listenable for its risk-taking. Let's now return to Earth. You know, where Klaxons actually are on the cover of every other newspaper and magazine, and have been for a few months. Having made the effort and cast aside the media's conceptions, I'm happy to report that their position is justified: Myths Of The Near Future is a brick through the window of your next door neighbour’s and the starting gun in a race to your nearest club. It's a really, really f**king good and danceable pop album that avoids changing lives, but happily enhances them. And that cover version? Klaxons have catapulted 'It's Not Over Yet' from slightly embarrassing dance 'classic' into one of the most uplifting, epic pop songs of the year. This isn't a rave record. It was never supposed to be. It's a wildly varying catalogue of melody and energy that eschews genre and scene in favour of songwriting and awe-inspiringly beefy production. Don't let anything get in the way of you picking up this record: it's expansive, free from pretension and easily one of the finest debuts of recent times. Rating: Words: Colin Roberts There's also a podcast interview with them right here.
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Post by jaxxalude on Jan 29, 2007 17:03:25 GMT -5
PitchforkKlaxons Send Myths Stateside via Rinse/DGCSound the alarm! Having stirred up quite the new rave ruckus in their native UK, band-of-the- moment Klaxons have announced their U.S. invasion objectives-- and first up is the release of their debut LP, Myths of the Near Future. Out today in the UK via Rinse/Polydor, Myths won't cross the ocean until late April (provided it doesn't run into any visa troubles). DGC, which fostered some bands that got pretty popular (Nirvana, Sonic Youth), has taken the young trio under its wing in the big scary United States (in conjunction with Rinse). Myths' U.S. release will likely coincide with Klaxons' very first Stateside appearances (again, fingers crossed about those visas). Thus far, the lads have Coachella on April 29 and quite the cavalcade of UK and European engagements lined up in the, er, near future. Don't miss CSS opening up that UK/Ireland stretch. Myths of the Near Future: 01 Two Receivers 02 Atlantis to Interzone 03 Golden Skans 04 Totem on the Timeline 05 As Above So Below 06 Isle of Her 07 Gravity's Rainbow 08 Forgotten Works 09 Magick 10 It's Not Over Yet 11 Four Horsemen of 2012 / (Untitled) Bring glowsticks: 01-30 Southampton, England - Joiners 01-31 Reading, England - Fez Club 02-02 Paris, France - Virgin Megastore Champs Elysées 02-03 Dublin, Ireland - Ambassador * 02-04 Belfast, Northern Ireland - Mandela Hall * 02-06 Glasgow, Scotland - Barrowlands * 02-07 Leeds, England - Leeds Metropolitan University * 02-08 Newcastle, England - Newcastle University * 02-10 Preston, England - 53 Degrees 02-11 Cardiff, Wales - University Solus * 02-12 Wolverhampton, England - Wulfrun Hall * 02-13 Oxford, England - Oxford Brookes University * 02-14 Bristol, England - Anson Rooms * 02-16 Liverpool, England - Academy * 02-17 Manchester, England - Academy 1 * 02-18 Sheffield, England - Plug * 02-20 Portsmouth, England - Pyramids * 02-21 Cambridge, England - Junction * 02-22 London, England - Hammersmith Palais * 03-03 Amsterdam, The Netherlands - Melkweg 03-04 Lille, France - Grand Mix 03-05 Brussels, Belgium - AB Box 03-06 Lyon, France - Ninkasi 03-08 Milan, Italy - Rolling Stone 03-09 Treviso, Italy - New Age Club 03-10 Bologna, Italy - Estragon 03-12 Paris, France - Trabendo 03-14 Nantes, France - Olympic 03-15 Bordeaux, France - Rockschool Barby 03-16 Clermont-Ferrand, France - La Cooperative 03-17 Zurich, Switzerland - Abart 03-19 Vienna, Austria - Flex 03-21 Munich, Germany - Atomic Cafe 03-22 Berlin, Germany - Lido 03-23 Hamburg, Germany - Uebel & Gafaehrlich 03-24 Cologne, Germany - Prime Club 04-29 Indio, CA - Empire Polo Field (Coachella) * with CSS, New Young Pony Club, the Sunshine Underground
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Post by jaxxalude on Jan 30, 2007 10:10:19 GMT -5
Stylus MagazineKlaxonsMyths of the Near FuturePolydor 2007 C+ne way to look at Klaxons is as the leaders of new rave, a movement they themselves named then backed away from as soon as they realized what was going on. New rave got its main source of media backing based on the fact that IPC’s finest were hungry for a new scene to praise, celebrate, and milk dry. Indeed, the NME tour this year is split into two distinct legs: one for meat ’n’ veg indie, the other for Klaxons and accompanying inept bandwagon-hoppers like s**tdisco. The reason they needed a new thing is simple: Kerrang! is taking the NME to the woodshed on a weekly basis in terms of sales figures because the average 16-year-old isn’t interested in dancing in the middle of a field in an oversized white t-shirt. (They’re interested in dancing like they do in the video for “I Write Sins Not Tragedies,” with the fairy dust and everything.) The broadsheets jumped on board soon afterward, perhaps scared that emo is the first genre that’s cropped up without this generation of music critics’ permission, perhaps worried that they’re too old to understand what’s going on and were comforted by something that reminded them of when they were still young and relevant. A more critical way of looking at them is that they just aren’t real. This clearly isn’t rave, or even a reinvention of rave. They’re an indie band with a half-decent gimmick. And listening to them you feel that they’ve not learned rave correctly: that they didn’t find it through searching through their older brother’s record collection, gatekeeper late-night DJs digging in the crates and opening the ears of the youth to something new, or a vociferous passion for music that led them to consume all and everything before settling upon the TB-303 as the answer to all of life’s concerns. No, this was rave learned through watching the BBC’s Stuart Maconie going “Rave? Oh aye, big fish little fish they called it—what were we thinking?” on cheap clip shows. To which one could say, “so?” That’s what new bands do: they piss off purists. People trying to play bouncer to the entrance of rave, casting Klaxons off to one side because they’re not spending their nights and days thoroughly obeying the contemporary canon of electronica, are modern-day equivalents of guitar shop technicians in stained Pennywise t-shirts throwing darts at a picture of Avril Lavigne circa “Sk8r Boi.” They just don’t understand. Or, more likely, it wouldn’t help even if they did. A more interesting way of looking at Klaxons is via frontman Jamie Reynolds’s recent revelation that the band are strict adherents to The Manual, Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty’s 1988 step-by-step guide to achieving a number one single. One act who have managed to turn The Manual into a lengthy career is Scooter, who’ve also opted to take rave as their gimmicky centre. Unlike Klaxons, though, Scooter are prepared to be ridiculous, over the top, crass. Klaxons, perhaps tied to the ethos of chart indie more than chart dance, always seem keen to imbue their work with dignity, which has no place in rave. Anyway, the most Klaxons-relevant passage from The Manual: Unwrap pop’s layers and what we are left with is the same old plate of meat and two veg that have kept generations of pop pickers well satisfied. The emotional appetite that chart pop satisfies is constant. The hunger is forever. What does change is the technology. Then again, you could always examine Myths of the Near Future by actually sitting down and listening to the music. The most striking thing about Klaxons is that they’re probably the “biggest” band in chart indie today, in terms of sound if not scope. Opener “Two Receivers” in particular has the kind of bass that was left behind when sensible people stopped caring about dance music circa 2001. Latter-day Leftfield would be a good, if vaguely insulting, comparison term here. Sometimes, “Golden Skans” especially, the band dip desperately close to Ian Brown territory. Maybe they, or at least their career, would have been better off in the long run if they’d just positioned themselves as slightly less funky Madchester revivalists. They’ve got enough vaguely post-punkish potboilers to sustain a career. Tracks like “Totem on the Timeline” showcase their main strengths: incessant, driving rhythms riding along with tight guitar work and the kind of dumbf**k, disposable lyrics that the kids cut rugs to these days. But, no, we’re not going to review Myths of the Near Future via any of these approaches. New rave operates in a confined space, a room in which everyone is afraid to mention the elephant that’s squeezing them against the wall. It’s my duty as a music critic to pull Dumbo’s covering off so we can all look at him: www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCvRdeHSNJkReviewed by: Dom Passantino Reviewed on: 2007-01-30
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Post by jaxxalude on Jan 31, 2007 10:14:37 GMT -5
GigwiseKlaxons - ‘Myths Of The Near Future’ (Rinse) Released 29/01/07"they’ve demonstrated a powerful musical wisdom, and that they’re more than intent on out lasting the vibrant fluorescence of the glow sticks which their fans cling on to... " by Jason Gregory on 30/01/2007Klaxons have a lot to answer for. Just over a year ago music scenes were peaceful, easy to understand and relatively straightforward to define. Then something changed. What exactly? Well – everything. We could blame the raw trio’s young naivety, but then, we could just as cynically applaud their ‘slip of the tongue’ as one of the greatest marketing tricks of recent times. Whatever side of the fence you stand, when the band uttered the words, ‘New Rave,’ something wobbled beneath our feet so violently you’d have thought Britain had just swum the English Channel and adjoined itself to France.In reality, the tremble was actually caused by herds of teenagers scrambling for fluorescent jackets from their local JJB and glow sticks from over-the-hill nineties rave catalogues, as ‘New Rave’ spread throughout the nation like a bush fire. Not since acid house spread from the depths of dark London warehouses across the nation in the early nineties, had a movement travelled with such brutality. It can’t just be because of a fad expression though, can it? In a word – no. Crucially the band - which consists of - Jamie Reynolds (bass, vocals), James Righton (Keyboard, Vocals) and Simon Taylor (Guitar, Vocals), had a library of high on ecstasy jaw droppers that supported, and maybe even encouraged the hype surrounding them. The long awaited release of ‘Myths Of The Near Future’ therefore comes as a nice, and welcome reminder that Klaxons aren’t just the hooker in a media scrum. From the outset MOTNF has been structured stringently, and at times, produced with just the same precision. The albums opener, ‘Two Receivers,’ is the dynamic building block upon which the album is constructed. Its ‘Phat Planet-esque’ prelude helps the song gallop with the same intensity as the horses in the Guinness advert which famously featured the Leftfield tune. Then there’s the subtle complexity of, ‘Totem On The Timeline,’ which is far more rock than rave, and a song which holds such verve you’ll want to re-visit its track door frequently. is the closest Klaxons will ever get to balladry, as they painfully harp out the line, “Run. There’s only seven more miles to go.” Although the song provides a nice breather, it’s little more than a pit stop in proceedings, and sounds contrived compared to its company on the LP. Bar the occasional hiccup and unnecessarily ‘glossy’ finish, which some of the tracks have been coated in, Klaxons prove through the brooding bass and brassy synths of, ‘Forgotten Works,’ that there’s more to the band than their overblown reputation. This is a trio with a vocal relationship that is as perfected as The Futureheads but with more depth in their final output. See the ascending brilliance of ‘Golden Skans’ for confirmation. Now, after ignoring it for long enough, and with a fresh injection of blood in the veins to accommodate the impending overdose, it feels possible to deal with the songs that don’t exactly help discourage the term ‘New Rave.’ Sprinkled liberally throughout the LP there’s the 3-dimensional pandemonium of, ‘Atlantis To Interzone;’ the ‘stack the shelves, pack the boxes’ dance shapes of ‘Magick,’ and Klaxons own interpretation of Grace’s 1995 smash hit, ‘Not Over Yet.’ The latter’s keyboards sounding like the swirling screeching noise the waltzers make at your local fair. They’re certainly dance songs yes, but so unashamedly so that whether it’s ‘New Rave’ or not isn’t an issue. After a whirlwind year which has seen the band go from art students to unassuming ‘rave-ivalists,’ Klaxons would always have a lot to prove, and potentially a lot to lose with ‘Myths Of The Near Future.’ Luckily however, they’ve demonstrated a powerful musical wisdom, and that they’re more than intent on out lasting the vibrant fluorescence of the glow sticks which their fans cling on to.
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Post by joker on Feb 1, 2007 15:12:03 GMT -5
www.gigwise.com/news.asp?contentid=27450Klaxons Sailing Towards Number OneKlaxons are at number one in the midweek charts and are firm favourites to claim the top spot come Sunday. The trio are outselling last weeks chart topper The View’s ‘Hats Off To The Buskers’ and sturdy competition from Norah Jones. In a Myspace bulletin, the band said: “Absolute madness is upon us, ‘Myths’ is sitting on the big chair at number one in the middle of the week chart. Ridiculous it is… couldn’t be happier. “So a massive thank you to everyone who has been there and holding it, and a small word of encouragement to those who haven’t – to help us keep Norah from the throne.”
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Post by jaxxalude on Feb 1, 2007 17:14:00 GMT -5
Interesting cover. It doesn't touch the giddy heights of the original, though.
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Post by jaxxalude on Feb 1, 2007 17:14:48 GMT -5
Lead singer Jamie Reynolds talks the talk to American audiences via Pitchfork.
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Post by jaxxalude on Feb 1, 2007 18:44:01 GMT -5
NMEKlaxons: Myths Of The FutureNew rave founders put some colour back into indie's pale exteriorNew rave: the plaything of a group of east London art kids; a multi-tentacled neon revolution; a rebirth of punk flying alongside the soul of dance music and under the influence of lost weekends on interstellar ketamine terror-cruises. And you know what else? It's a fucking albatross around the neck of the most thrilling and visionary band Britain's had in more than a decade. Klaxons? They're just a bunch of new rave scenesters, right? Wrong. When new rave's legacy has become little more than a serotonin drought in the brains of its disciples, 'Myths Of The Near Future' will remain one of the most dynamic, intense and totally lunatic pop records of the early 21st century. Back in early 2006, Klaxons announced themselves with a series of parties which, in a sea of hyper-coloured sweat, washed the standardised hand-stamp-and-plastic-pint-pot gig from the agenda of thousands of excited kids. Their first taste of a new kind of rave transformed them into genre-bending zealots screaming for attention. Little did the band know what a beast they'd created in new rave: it soon galloped ahead of them, threatening to leave them watching from the recording studio as it tore across the land in a psychotropic blur of all-night madness and chemical breakfasts. But, where a thousand lesser party bands were swallowed in a psychedelic paint job of fluoro, MDMA and glowsticks, Klaxons' dark hearts would burn holes through a million smiley-print windsheeters. Reaching far deeper into the dark than your average raver could ever witness at the bottom of his weekend K-hole, 'Myths Of The Near Future' is charged with the same spirit which fuelled legendary rave pranksters The KLF's period of pop subversion. Like those predecessors, these boys are bigger than the gimmicky fashions which people seek to define them by; they're here to fuck around with pop music, and no faddish formulae, not even the ones they helped create, are going to constrain them. Nearly a decade ago, rave died as the bloated bastard was kicked from its nightclub residency by a generation of indie kids with an urge to pull the dancefloor from beneath the feet of twats with baggy trousers. Klaxons have resurrected not rave's shoe-gazing trance sound (which, let's face it, was always just prog with a beat), but its manic spirit (something betrayed long ago by the dope-chuffing trustafarian psychedelic-trance twits, who until recently were the last of the ravers). Capturing this errant phantom in a pincer movement of both pop music's self-control and punk rock's roaring passion, Klaxons have achieved both brevity and breadth. Fuck genres, fuck trends, fuck history, this band are only concerned with reshaping guitar music... forever. In just over 35 minutes, 'Myths...' tears apart not only the blueprints studied by a scene over the last 12 months in order to build a glowing overpass from Glasgow's art house tenements to London squats, but also the flesh of the Earth's landscape, leaping from heaven-scratching mountain peaks to dark city backstreets in a flash. One moment Klaxons are lending their blood-boiling guitars and serotonin-chugging sirens to Grace's pure pop '90s dance smash 'Not Over Yet', the next drawing a burning line in the sky between Nostradamus, Dizzee Rascal and Sex Pistols on the psycho-apocalyptic 'Four Horsemen Of 2012'. Taking us on a paranormal journey through the hypnotised mantra of 'Magick', via the timelord booze-cruise terrace-chant of 'Totem On The Timeline' and the volatile genius of gonzo riot-rave classic 'Atlantis To Interzone', they're rewriting popular music as they go along. Jamie, Simon and James aren't the first group of guitar kids to dive into dance culture. Where 20 years ago The Stone Roses' ecstasy-fuelled rave grandstanding was supplemented by their history as a Johnny Marr-inflected indie rock band, Klaxons cast a glance at the past, grounding 'Myths Of The Near Future''s vanguard tendencies within a grand history of British pop eccentricity. Never daring to stand still, this record dances alongside the strange landscapes of melody, dirge and oddity which were built into the pop lexicon by Damon Albarn's ceaseless 15-year writing career. Where once harmonious melody and grimy fuzzcore existed only at polar points of the musical spectrum, both Blur and Gorillaz have seen them learn to sit side by side - and the shadows of Albarn's idiosyncratic touch are all over Klaxons' debut. 'Modern Life Is Ravish' apparently - the godly 'Golden Skans' is 'London Loves' worshipping at a tin-foil altar, while 'As Above So Below' may well have escaped from 'Think Tank''s colourful off-cuts. Still, although they may be picking up Damon's baton of pop alchemy - a desire to pull melodious nuggets from thick swathes of dark noise - Klaxons are charging towards an apocalyptic finishing line which is all their creation. Today this country is blessed with many poets of the mundane, from Arctic Monkeys to The View to The Twang, but Klaxons are different - self-styled prophets of the insane. Magic, the Cyclops, ecstasy, Buzz Aldrin, sunken cities, hypnosis, Aleister Crowley, unicorns and time-travel... These are the things which concern this record. "There's a half-man, half-horse who still runs through my thoughts as he rides on a flame in the sky", they wail on 'Four Horsemen Of 2012'. 'The View From The Afternoon'? Fuck that. This is the view from the afterlife. From the devil's shoulder swoops a brutish big-beat drum-loop to announce 'Two Receivers', a half-paced, yearning song led by an eerie chorus of Druids. 'Isle Of Her' is a Gregorian cyberman funeral march, while the glorious 'Forgotten Works' may be Brian Eno's lost Apocalypto soundtrack. No matter how weird or intense things get, however, Klaxons' twisted pop sensibility is never forgotten. And on 'Gravity's Rainbow' it reaches its maniac apex, as Sparks rip into Donna Summer with hollow guitars, melting synths and a laser bow and arrow. In 2001, a thrillingly brief record, largely built around previously-heard songs was released by a gang of young men who shared a common vision and an iconic aesthetic which clobbered through the ceiling of the underground and crawled out onto the high streets of the mainstream. Whether Klaxons will reshape our world into a fluorescent myth-tropolis as successfully as The Strokes turned the mono-tune remains to be seen, but their debut has the anatomy necessary to change the course of a generation. Unlike 'Is This It', the roots of 'Myths...' do not stem from the polluted grace of the 21st century city. Nor are they in the Day-Glo bedsits, designer drugs and guestlist raves of Shoreditch. They're in the pages of pop's eccentric history, from which it both burns and borrows. This is no blitzkrieg dance record, but a debut album of astonishing variety and focus; a Technicolor car crash of the mythological and the space-aged. It's a unique, disorientating manifesto for the future of music - rammed with a millennia's-worth of ideas. But, whether it's being blared across a sweat-stacked inner city rave or accompanying the setting sun over Glastonbury's Green Fields, when 'Atlantis To Interzone''s sirens begin to blare - this remarkable record will make perfect, beautiful sense. Somewhere in between this life and the next, from the scattered shards of the past and of the future, Klaxons have built a magical and dangerous world all of their own and now, by the grace of God, it is ours as well. Alex Miller
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oscillations.
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Post by oscillations. on Feb 1, 2007 18:48:10 GMT -5
This thread is on FIYAH!
(Apparently, my capacity for adjective usage has been decreased by 95%).
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oscillations.
Diamond Member
Opinion = Fact
I was faced with a choice at a difficult age.
Joined: February 2005
Posts: 10,130
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Post by oscillations. on Feb 7, 2007 17:44:11 GMT -5
YESSS! PITCHFORKKlaxons Invade North America Get ready: Klaxons are coming to America. The UK sensations have announced a 13-date North American tour, which concludes with a previously reported Coachella stop in late April. The jaunt is in support of Klaxons' debut LP, Myths of the Near Future, due on Pitchfork's side of the pond March 27 via Rinse/DGC. That album is already out in the UK, where the band is touring right now. Dates: 02-08 Newcastle, England - Newcastle University * 02-10 Preston, England - 53 Degrees 02-11 Cardiff, Wales - University Solus * 02-12 Wolverhampton, England - Wulfrun Hall * 02-13 Oxford, England - Oxford Brookes University * 02-14 Bristol, England - Anson Rooms * 02-16 Liverpool, England - Academy * 02-17 Manchester, England - Academy 1 * 02-18 Sheffield, England - Plug * 02-20 Portsmouth, England - Pyramids * 02-21 Cambridge, England - Junction * 02-22 London, England - Hammersmith Palais * 03-03 Amsterdam, The Netherlands - Melkweg 03-04 Lille, France - Grand Mix 03-05 Brussels, Belgium - AB Box 03-06 Lyon, France - Ninkasi 03-08 Milan, Italy - Rolling Stone 03-09 Treviso, Italy - New Age Club 03-10 Bologna, Italy - Estragon 03-12 Paris, France - Trabendo 03-14 Nantes, France - Olympic 03-15 Bordeaux, France - Rockschool Barby 03-16 Clermont-Ferrand, France - La Cooperative 03-17 Zurich, Switzerland - Abart 03-19 Vienna, Austria - Flex 03-21 Munich, Germany - Atomic Cafe 03-22 Berlin, Germany - Lido 03-23 Hamburg, Germany - Uebel & Gafaehrlich 03-24 Cologne, Germany - Prime Club 04-08 Toronto, Ontario - Lee's Palace 04-10 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom 04-11 Boston, MA - Great Scott 04-13 Brooklyn, NY - Studio B 04-14 Philadelphia, PA - Transit 04-16 Chicago, IL - Schubas 04-17 Minneapolis, MN - 7th Street Entry 04-19 Denver, CO - Larimer Lounge 04-22 Vancouver, British Columbia - Richard's on Richards 04-23 Seattle, WA - Crocodile Café 04-24 Portland, OR - Dante's 04-26 San Francisco, CA - Popscene 04-29 Indio, CA - Empire Polo Field (Coachella) * with CSS, New Young Pony Club, the Sunshine Underground Video for "Atlantis to Interzone": www.modularpeople.com/media/klaxons/klaxons_hi.asxOh man, those UK shows w/CSS & NYPC are so tempting!
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Post by jaxxalude on Feb 13, 2007 17:28:13 GMT -5
The Siren Sweet at Playlouder (AKA a live show review).
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oscillations.
Diamond Member
Opinion = Fact
I was faced with a choice at a difficult age.
Joined: February 2005
Posts: 10,130
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Post by oscillations. on Feb 20, 2007 22:00:40 GMT -5
They are opening for Muse @ the Wembley dates.
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Post by jaxxalude on Mar 8, 2007 18:23:33 GMT -5
ROLLING STONEKlaxonsMyths Of The Near Future RS: 2 of 5 Stars 2007 On the sliding scale of terrible ideas, a U.K. "New Rave" scene rates somewhere between cat juggling and Studio 60. Until now, the best case you could make for old-school Madchester-era rave was that at least it didn't have any revival potential. But the Klaxons have made a bold entrance with the club hit "Atlantis to Interzone," dressing up in fluorescent wizard robes to chant, "Horses want to dance/But find their wings are damaged!" On Myths, they expand their suspiciously indie-ish rock riffs with tales of centaurs ("4 Horsemen of 2012") and Cyclopses ("Isle of Her"). Glowsticks are go! Or not! ROB SHEFFIELD(Posted: Mar 7, 2007)
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Post by jaxxalude on Mar 9, 2007 14:11:12 GMT -5
See Klaxons making total buffoons of themselves backstage at the NME Awards right here. You'll learn some new breakdancing steps along the way too.
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