Klaxons - Myths of the Near Future
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Free Music Notes for Myths of the Near Future
Free Music Review: To quote them, "Magick!"
Hit: 5 Stars
There has been a plethora of great British bands over the last few years; Kaiser Chiefs, the Kooks, Arctic Monkeys, Kasabian, Franz Ferdinand, and Hard-Fi to mention a few. Add to that list Klaxons, winners of the 2007 Mercury music prize (they beat out Amy Winehouse's "Back to black" as well as the Arctic Monkey's "Favourite worst nightmare").
"Myths of the near future" (named after a short story collection by J. G. Ballard) is the debut album from the English trio and it comprises 11 energetic (often raucous) songs running just over 35 minutes in total. Everything on this CD is upbeat, and their sound (a hybrid of rock, dance, and electronic) has been labelled Nu rave. Opening cut "Two receivers" has some insistent piano tinkling, set to a hard hitting beat and a buzzing riff, while a klaxon sound runs through the tempo shifting "Atlantis to interzone".
Next up is my favourite, "Golden skans" (fell in love with this when I saw the video), a shimmery song with a very catchy chorus (love those Ooo ooo ooohs running in the background). Lovely! A #7 hit in the UK, this was the biggest hit of the singles.
"Totem on the timeline" is more urgent with buzzing guitars, the Blur-like "As above, so below" sets distorted guitars to a Motown beat, the fuzzy laid back "Isle of her" wouldn't sound out of place on a Gorillaz album, "Gravity's rainbow" has skittery beats, electronic effects and chanted vocals, "Forgotten works" (with a groovy bassline) is dance rock, "Magick" features drum-machine-demolishing beats alternating with a quieter eerie feel, "It's not over yet" (similar to "Golden skans", this is actually a remake of a dance song by Grace), and closing is the fuzzy upbeat apocalyptic "Four horsemen of 2012" with spoken lyrics.
Catchy, danceable, fun filled music, the album made #2 in the UK. Look out for their collaboration on the Chemical Brother's Grammy winning CD "We are the night" (on the song "All rights reversed").
Free Music Review: 3-1/2 stars -- Let me tell you a tale...
Hit: 3 Stars
Klaxons are another band that's popped up on the indie rock circuit. I came across their album Myths of the Near Future and picked it up, and I found that it's pretty good.
George Dionne's review is pretty accurate, but I'll still say that although I'm not sure what songs they released from this album, the only song that sounded familiar to me was "Golden Skans", which is easily the best song on the album. "Two Receivers" and "It's Not Over Yet" are also pretty good. But sometimes you run into songs with problems, whether it be a whole bunch of noise and not much else ("Four Horsemen of 2012") or just plain senselessness ("Atlantis to Interzone" -- I understand that most indie rock songs are just supposed to make you think, but that song is just a little TOO out there). And I can do without "Isle of Her".
Everything else on the album is okay. While I wouldn't necessarily call Klaxons "the next big thing", Myths of the Near Future is an album that should keep indie rock purists satisfied.
Anthony Rupert
Free Music Review: Certainly unique in its delivery
Hit: 3 Stars
The Good
With just one listen of the opening track "Two Receivers," you'll realize this isn't your typical rock album. In fact, with all of the effects and keyboard tones, the Klaxons could easily be defined as a throwback to the 80s new wave era mixes with the progressive pop rock of today. "Atlantis to Interzone" has more of a club or dance feel to it, but mixes in some great vocal melodies and drum beats to make it a fist-pumper rather than a toe tapper. "Totem on the Timeline" recalls a Devo influence with its effects heavy rhythms and layered vocals. Chunky bass and guitar riffs dominate "Frailty's Rainbow." The watery guitar licks are quite intriguing. "Magick" will spellbind you with a repetitive vocal hook and numbing instrumental tones.
The Bad
Can be a bit too experimental at times. May be hard for U.S. music fans to swallow as nothing like this really exists on the American airwaves.
The Verdict
Myths of the Near Future is certainly unique in it's delivery, but I'm not sure that everyone is ready to embrace it's highly experimental and effects heavy sound. The vocals are dead-pan new wave, and the rhythms are pure pop, but the total sound may only appeal to the art-embracing Europeans.
Free Music Review: The best!!!
Hit: 5 Stars
This album is one of the best albums in the past few months. The best mix of rock and electronic music that I got to hear lately, like nothing else. It's like they started their own wave of new rock. This is a MUST!Free Music Review: "From The Night To The Light..."
Hit: 5 Stars
Of course I was always going to be interested in this band. The name is up there with the greats and then the lyrical references to Thomas Pynchon, William Burroughs and Marcel Proust...And the threat of sirens in the odd song.
Yet this could all too easily become a double-edged sword. With that name the music had better be pretty startling and with those lyrical references you had better not embarass yourself.
So the stakes were set pretty high...
Which is where it all comes together very nicely.
Synthetic drums kick start the thing, the bass kicks against it, ominous organ rises and then..."Krill edible oceans at their feet"...drawing you in. The droning in the background coming to the fore with the almost-poppy chorus of "And in space...two receivers turn away". Epic stuff. This really is just brilliant music. Lighter than I expected though.
The shout of "DJ!" begins 'Atlantis To Interzone'and then the stream of consciousness lyrical twists and turns do justice to its literary pretensions before it all gets very post-punk in its styling. "The axis here is still unknown...". This track illustrates perfectly the crafting of the old and the new to arrive at something for now and then later. And it does boast impressive sirens.
'Golden Skans' was the breakthrough single here in the UK and is lighter, more psychedelic sounding but constantly tantalises with its - again - easy juggling of things heard before and where that knowledge must now be taken.
I should clarify. This band was pigeonholed as 'Nu Rave' before I'd even had the pleasure of hearing them and whilst I am happy to concede that this is very much new - or nu even - it can't be constrained by anything as obvious as one category, 'rave' or otherwise. It does however confirm the post-punk era as being of continued prominence in terms of influence on today's emerging bands.
To title a song 'Gravity's Rainbow' really is asking for trouble unless there's real substance to your own art. Klaxons manage to pull it off however. The lyrics seem to be an impressionistic account of the effect of Pynchon's masterpiece combined with the hallucinogenic promise at the centre of the novel. "Come with me, come with me/We'll travel to infinity..." The promise and the threat, of course.
"It's not over, not over, not over, not over yet..." is the rhythmic chant of the penultimate track until there's the 'Four Horsemen Of 2012' which ends the album superbly and is as out-there as I could wish for.
When I first heard this my only niggle was that my imagination of what a Klaxons album could be felt this could perhaps have been more extreme. Repeated listens have confirmed the error in this: Klaxons and in particular their quiter, more melodious moments reveal real subversion here. In short I shouldn't have worried at all. "Light the bridges with the lanterns/You know something's going to happen..." Amen. Magick.