So Nu-Rave is apparently the big thing over here in the UK at the moment, with fast Dance/Rock bands sprouting up all over the place. And it's largely the fault of the Klaxons who lead the way in making the genre the 'cool new thing'. If that sounds like a sneering attack on the Klaxons then it's not meant as such, it's more about how tiring the entire 'NME Dictated New Sound' process is.
The Klaxons themselves are a fairly interesting group, they're roughly a few years old and had music videos on MTV pretty much a whole year before their debut album 'Myths of the Near Future' was released. With a full four songs released before the album was seemingly finished it's a wonder that 'Myths of the Near Future' works at all, but it does manage to come across as a cohesive whole (albeit barely).
The main problem the album has is its second song.
Atlantis to Interzone is the first single the band released and it's pretty much the defining song of Nu-Rave, perfectly mixing the frentic, euphoric, high speed energy of early 90s trance/e tunes with a blistering, guitar riff and some nicely harmonised vocals.
The song is fairly astounding and represents probably the best bit of energy music that came out of the UK in 2006.
The rest of the album neither matches this intesity or even tries, and at times it feels like Atlantis is an odd man out. Certainly the other standout tracks are far more pedestrian (Magick nearly gets the same kind of intensity, but is a tiny bit too repetitive to be as iconic) and the album itself peters out with a wealth of forgettable songs and an abomination of a cover version of 'It's Not Over Yet'.
Some Youtube videos;
Atlantis To Interzone
Magick (which really reminds me of Evil Dead II)
Gravity's Rainbow
Anyone else into them:
The Klaxons themselves are a fairly interesting group, they're roughly a few years old and had music videos on MTV pretty much a whole year before their debut album 'Myths of the Near Future' was released. With a full four songs released before the album was seemingly finished it's a wonder that 'Myths of the Near Future' works at all, but it does manage to come across as a cohesive whole (albeit barely).
The main problem the album has is its second song.
Atlantis to Interzone is the first single the band released and it's pretty much the defining song of Nu-Rave, perfectly mixing the frentic, euphoric, high speed energy of early 90s trance/e tunes with a blistering, guitar riff and some nicely harmonised vocals.
The song is fairly astounding and represents probably the best bit of energy music that came out of the UK in 2006.
The rest of the album neither matches this intesity or even tries, and at times it feels like Atlantis is an odd man out. Certainly the other standout tracks are far more pedestrian (Magick nearly gets the same kind of intensity, but is a tiny bit too repetitive to be as iconic) and the album itself peters out with a wealth of forgettable songs and an abomination of a cover version of 'It's Not Over Yet'.
Some Youtube videos;
Atlantis To Interzone
Magick (which really reminds me of Evil Dead II)
Gravity's Rainbow
Anyone else into them:
