Nu-Rave was an elaborate joke which got out of hand and it's unfortunately self-aware inventors know it better than anyone else. Wisely then they have chosen to follow up their Mercury Prize winning debut album (2006's 'Myths Of The Near Future') with an album which shuns the siren pitched, synth led histrionics of break-out singles 'Atlantis To Interzone' and 'Golden Skans' in favour of psychedelic, guitar led pop. Not a million miles away from MGMT then. However where MGMT went so far as to purposely alienate the fans who latched onto them through Radio 1's over zealous play-listing of 'Kids' and 'Time To Pretend', Klaxons understand on which side their bread is buttered and after 4 years and one aborted 'doom-prog opus' (which their label apparently refused to release) the London 4 piece have delivered an album which should please both factions of the bands fan-base, the fair-weather indie-pop kids and the 'cooler than thou' alternative sect. This is thanks in part (bizarrely) to godfather of nu-metal Ross Robinson.
I know what your thinking, it's not exactly a match made in heaven but Robinson's strict work ethic and tight, crisp production style is a really smart fit for a band who once admitted they 'couldn't really play'. Here guitars are given precedence over synths (no doubt much to the delight of lead guitarist Simon Taylor Davis who squalls through the record like a displaced member of early Sonic Youth), drums pound and clatter and vocals are auto-tuned within an inch of their lives. A 'Liars' record this most certainly is not (though it can't be denied the two bands share an affinity for the 'massed vocal' effect) but this isn't a record aimed at chin stroking ATP goers, this is a mainstream pop record masquerading as an avant-garde punk record. It might not be what the band (or their label) was going for but some mistakes can be beautiful.
Many will have already heard the albums opening track 'Echoes' and as far as lead-off singles go it's a real corker and is probably the strongest song here, indeed it's probably the strongest song in the bands canon thus far. Spaced out guitars and fuzzy, vintage synths share equal space in a dynamic mix that manages a perfect balance between the euphoric Klaxons of old and the darker tinged and more fully rounded band they have become. 'The Same Spaces' continues much in the same vein as the boys locate a bone crunching chorus amidst the glittering, reverb drenched cosmos and while it's hardly a match for 'Echoes' stately grandeur it has a really solid depth and atmosphere to it, in fact much the same can be said of the album in general. To me Klaxons were always a band searching for 'their sound' with the first record and here I think they've genuinely found it. The juxtaposition of keening vocals and melodies against almost industrial drums and art-rock guitars really sparks with electric chaos on beautiful and often intense numbers such as 'Flashover' (a song no doubt left-over from their 'prog sessions') and 'Venusia', an electro pop swirl that sounds like Ride covering Depeche Mode.
The title track, mid album metallic palette cleanser 'Extra Astronomical' and the frantic, closing 'Cypherspeed' represent the closest links to the bands past with violent distortion and almost metal rhythms underpinning keyboard fuelled hardcore punk collisions which Refused would have been proud of. 'Twin Flames' also is a close cousin to their own 'Golden Skans' with a dance-floor ready rhythm and infectious, layered vocals. It's the tracks that truly push Klaxons in a new, more exciting direction that really impress though and as such these more 'familiar' songs come across almost as stepping stones for old fans not ready (or willing) to let go.
It's hardly an eclectic album, the lyrics are largely cosmic nonsense ("Dimensions of time have come undone and now we have become so un-alone" anyone?) and consistent use of 'octave apart' vocals harmonies starts to grate around track 4 but Klaxons have beaten the odds here to truly deliver one of the most exhilarating albums of the summer. If this is the result of strict label control maybe artistic freedom is overrated?
Latest content from Klaxons
More content from 'Polydor'
