rmgebhardt
03-19-2007, 09:15 AM
Allow yourself a quick glance over the biographies and hype stickers on the current buzz bands being thrust down your throat, and you’re sure to notice a new weapon in the hyperbolic arsenal at every record company’s disposal. For where once there was only comparisons to other bands, or links to popular genres, now we are hit with gems such as "80s disco pop meets death metal in a spandex dance fight". Seemingly every band is trying to fly their flag as bold originators of some strain of the musical pantheon never before visited. Invariably, this amounts to such forward thinking as a pop-punk band taking the huge step of adding a keyboard player, or a hardcore act peppering a breakdown with some mean trumpet action. However, as with all generations of artists, for the countless hordes of pretenders to the throne, there are always going to be small numbers of acts coming out with something fresh, something leaving journalists scratching their heads in search of a non-existent pigeonhole.
And so we come to the UK music scene. In one sense a stagnant wasteland, over saturated with interchangeable indie bands. The NME, once a renowned tastemaking authority, now a bloated-with-power hype factory, giving plagiarism a pedestal and celebrating the stale. But all is not lost. A clutch of bands, whilst treading rather different waters, are heralding a new era of creativity and evolution in music, where genre barriers are obliterated in a sonic maelstrom of Technicolor wonder.
http://www.nme.com/images/84_klaxons_L121006_01.jpg
First up are Klaxons . From simply a name banded around the music press with the now meaningless ‘next big thing’ tag hotly in tow, the band have emerged as the standard bearers of an entire musical movement. With a sound that fidgets between electroclash, trance, and straight up indie, delivered in manic yelps and falsetto harmonies, it was obvious from the time "Atlantis to Interzone" started getting airplay that the band was something special. However, not even the most astute and optimistic members of the music community could have predicted the band's penchant for day-glo vintage sportswear and rave culture could be the basis for the UK's next big ‘craze’.
As always, the most viable barometer for when a music-inspired trend becomes ‘big’ is when it permeates into the high street clothes stores. And sure enough, as the last of the messenger bags, studded belts, and trucker caps leave the shelves of Topman and Topshop (the UK's largest and most popular fashion stores) as ‘emo’ flits out of the spotlight as quickly as it sauntered in, we see shirts emblazoned with RAVE and everything drenched in seizure-inducing neon colours.
Such an effect the ‘nu-rave’ culture spawned by Klaxons has had on mainstream consciousness. Possibly down to their nostalgic appeal to the ‘happy hardcore’ generation of the mid 90s, most definitely aided by their capturing the sentiments of the fickle nature of the MySpace generation, the band entered the UK Album Chart with their album Myths of the Near Future at #2. And whilst not as mindblowing as the NME would probably have you believe, you cannot help but tip your cap to the intergalactic space jargon drenched in the aural equivalent of strobe lighting contained on the disc.
Whilst Klaxons certainly mixed rave and indie culture to much success, to say the marriage was much of a stretch would be a little misleading. There are, however, much more interesting concoctions cooking in the UK's musical kitchen.
http://www.caughtinthecrossfire.com/media/images/music/news/entershiraki.jpg
Whatever made the boys in Enter Shikari think that lifting the best bits from a Hard House Euphoria (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hard-House-Euphoria-Vol-1-Lashes/dp/B0000542JJ) compilation would be the perfect compliment to their brand of screamo/metalcore is quite frankly beyond me. But as they looked out on the crowd at their recent sold out show at the London Astoria, raving like it was an Ibiza afterparty until the breakdown kicked in and a sizeable circle pit ensued, they were probably thanking the high heavens they thought of it first. Because, whilst at first brush the worlds of trance and metal seem so very, very far removed, as the band will say themselves; when the beat drops, be it in the form of a punishing breakdown, or a euphoric trance interlude, the levels of intensity are the same.
The combination works on record, but the true beauty can only be witnessed live. You have all the fury of a metal show, that frequently blossoms into scenes resembling a mid-90s field rave (http://www.thesite.org/drinkanddrugs/drugculture/drugstrade/thehistoryofrave). Much as Klaxons inventiveness garnered both critical plaudits and mainstream success, Enter Shikari’s recent single "Anything Can Happen in the Next Half Hour" charted at #26. Major label push? Huge promotional budget? This is 2007, bub. The band formed their own record label, Ambush Reality (http://www.myspace.com/ambushreality) and self release everything. And if the selling out of almost every date on their UK tour is anything to go by, the imminent release of their debut album Take to the Skies will push some hefty numbers as well.
http://www.music4m.com/Music%20News/Hadouken%200.jpg
Finally we come to Hadouken! With what can only be put down to the laziness of the press, the band are being lumped in with the nu-rave scene, but this is far from an indication of the band's sound. Yes, there are synthesizers. Yes, there are elements of indie in there. But with a frontman with a style more Dizzee Rascal than Brandon Flowers, and the frequent usage of samples from SNES and Megadrive games, Hadouken! are in a league of their own.
Sounding somewhat like a grime (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grime) MC freestyling over the music from a boss level in Sonic the Hedgehog, the band deal with everything from tongue in cheek observations on the 'scene' ("That Boy That Girl") to the art of dating ("Tuning In"). Klaxons and Enter Shikari may have brought together genres that at first seem jarring and made them work, but with Hadouken!'s marriage of grime and indie, the band have crossed a whole cultural, social, and most notably, racial divide. With the band still earning their chops and honing their sound, as evidenced by the far from polished (but incredibly enjoyable) live show, there are still lengths to go. But with their fast rising popularity, their current position as darlings of the MySpace world and their debut currently in the works, Hadouken! could potentially be huge.
Whilst just a snapshot of the burgeoning culture of genre alchemy, Klaxons, Enter Shikari, and Hadouken! are three bands sailing their very own waters and reaping in the praise for it. One would hope the rise of a culture where inventiveness and forward thinking are gospel could only spell good things for music as a whole. I, for one, look forward to what amalgamations are dreamed up next.
--Alex Davies
Klaxon's MySpace (http://www.myspace.com/klaxons)
Enter Shikari's MySpace (http://www.myspace.com/entershikari)
Hadouken!'s MySpace (http://www.myspace.com/hadoukenuk)
And so we come to the UK music scene. In one sense a stagnant wasteland, over saturated with interchangeable indie bands. The NME, once a renowned tastemaking authority, now a bloated-with-power hype factory, giving plagiarism a pedestal and celebrating the stale. But all is not lost. A clutch of bands, whilst treading rather different waters, are heralding a new era of creativity and evolution in music, where genre barriers are obliterated in a sonic maelstrom of Technicolor wonder.
http://www.nme.com/images/84_klaxons_L121006_01.jpg
First up are Klaxons . From simply a name banded around the music press with the now meaningless ‘next big thing’ tag hotly in tow, the band have emerged as the standard bearers of an entire musical movement. With a sound that fidgets between electroclash, trance, and straight up indie, delivered in manic yelps and falsetto harmonies, it was obvious from the time "Atlantis to Interzone" started getting airplay that the band was something special. However, not even the most astute and optimistic members of the music community could have predicted the band's penchant for day-glo vintage sportswear and rave culture could be the basis for the UK's next big ‘craze’.
As always, the most viable barometer for when a music-inspired trend becomes ‘big’ is when it permeates into the high street clothes stores. And sure enough, as the last of the messenger bags, studded belts, and trucker caps leave the shelves of Topman and Topshop (the UK's largest and most popular fashion stores) as ‘emo’ flits out of the spotlight as quickly as it sauntered in, we see shirts emblazoned with RAVE and everything drenched in seizure-inducing neon colours.
Such an effect the ‘nu-rave’ culture spawned by Klaxons has had on mainstream consciousness. Possibly down to their nostalgic appeal to the ‘happy hardcore’ generation of the mid 90s, most definitely aided by their capturing the sentiments of the fickle nature of the MySpace generation, the band entered the UK Album Chart with their album Myths of the Near Future at #2. And whilst not as mindblowing as the NME would probably have you believe, you cannot help but tip your cap to the intergalactic space jargon drenched in the aural equivalent of strobe lighting contained on the disc.
Whilst Klaxons certainly mixed rave and indie culture to much success, to say the marriage was much of a stretch would be a little misleading. There are, however, much more interesting concoctions cooking in the UK's musical kitchen.
http://www.caughtinthecrossfire.com/media/images/music/news/entershiraki.jpg
Whatever made the boys in Enter Shikari think that lifting the best bits from a Hard House Euphoria (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hard-House-Euphoria-Vol-1-Lashes/dp/B0000542JJ) compilation would be the perfect compliment to their brand of screamo/metalcore is quite frankly beyond me. But as they looked out on the crowd at their recent sold out show at the London Astoria, raving like it was an Ibiza afterparty until the breakdown kicked in and a sizeable circle pit ensued, they were probably thanking the high heavens they thought of it first. Because, whilst at first brush the worlds of trance and metal seem so very, very far removed, as the band will say themselves; when the beat drops, be it in the form of a punishing breakdown, or a euphoric trance interlude, the levels of intensity are the same.
The combination works on record, but the true beauty can only be witnessed live. You have all the fury of a metal show, that frequently blossoms into scenes resembling a mid-90s field rave (http://www.thesite.org/drinkanddrugs/drugculture/drugstrade/thehistoryofrave). Much as Klaxons inventiveness garnered both critical plaudits and mainstream success, Enter Shikari’s recent single "Anything Can Happen in the Next Half Hour" charted at #26. Major label push? Huge promotional budget? This is 2007, bub. The band formed their own record label, Ambush Reality (http://www.myspace.com/ambushreality) and self release everything. And if the selling out of almost every date on their UK tour is anything to go by, the imminent release of their debut album Take to the Skies will push some hefty numbers as well.
http://www.music4m.com/Music%20News/Hadouken%200.jpg
Finally we come to Hadouken! With what can only be put down to the laziness of the press, the band are being lumped in with the nu-rave scene, but this is far from an indication of the band's sound. Yes, there are synthesizers. Yes, there are elements of indie in there. But with a frontman with a style more Dizzee Rascal than Brandon Flowers, and the frequent usage of samples from SNES and Megadrive games, Hadouken! are in a league of their own.
Sounding somewhat like a grime (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grime) MC freestyling over the music from a boss level in Sonic the Hedgehog, the band deal with everything from tongue in cheek observations on the 'scene' ("That Boy That Girl") to the art of dating ("Tuning In"). Klaxons and Enter Shikari may have brought together genres that at first seem jarring and made them work, but with Hadouken!'s marriage of grime and indie, the band have crossed a whole cultural, social, and most notably, racial divide. With the band still earning their chops and honing their sound, as evidenced by the far from polished (but incredibly enjoyable) live show, there are still lengths to go. But with their fast rising popularity, their current position as darlings of the MySpace world and their debut currently in the works, Hadouken! could potentially be huge.
Whilst just a snapshot of the burgeoning culture of genre alchemy, Klaxons, Enter Shikari, and Hadouken! are three bands sailing their very own waters and reaping in the praise for it. One would hope the rise of a culture where inventiveness and forward thinking are gospel could only spell good things for music as a whole. I, for one, look forward to what amalgamations are dreamed up next.
--Alex Davies
Klaxon's MySpace (http://www.myspace.com/klaxons)
Enter Shikari's MySpace (http://www.myspace.com/entershikari)
Hadouken!'s MySpace (http://www.myspace.com/hadoukenuk)