Klaxons and its extraordinary tales in UK tour dates
With Klaxons’ debut album, we could foresee the future: it was colourful, fun, psychedelic. Above all, it was danceable – the type of dance when arms stand high above heads and feet high above the floor. It was like a trance, and we liked it. Klaxons was so difficult to pin down that the British press created a label just for them: new rave.
But as if following James Murphy’s predictions in the song Losing my Edge, next time we heard about Klaxons they had ditched the turntables and embraced the guitars for Surfing the Void, an album at once dense and dreamy, with heavy guitars, out of time keyboards and vocal that reminds of grunting. Then came the interviews: there were tales of biblical visions and Ayuhasca, collective consciousness and the world shift, bringing together of humanity and shamanism.
It could be worrying but there is no ordinariness in Klaxons and its vision can still be clearly perceived behind it all. They are determined to create something extraordinary, and the only way of achieving it is standing where few people have been before. Unlike Samson, Klaxons strength survived Delilah and they can still wrest a lion a day.
Klaxons UK tour dates: Manchester (Nov 11), Norwich (Nov 12), Bournemouth (Nov 13), Nottingham (Nov 14), London (Nov 16), Cambridge (Nov 17), Oxford (Nov 18), Birmingham (Nov 20), Glasgow (Nov 21), Leeds (Nov 22).
Flamingo, Brandon Flowers’ solo album, has been received with endless criticism, all of them regarding its similarities with The Killers. Not so bad then, as it was meant to be a The Killers album, but upon the band’s decision to have a break the relentless musician decided to record the songs nonetheless. It sounds like a The Killers’ album because it was written with the intention to be one, and it’s also been done by a Killers’ member. More than an unfair critique, the said similarities are evidence of Brandon’s talent and relevance in the identity of the multi-million selling and multi-award winning band The Killers.
The Drums sound like suicide thoughts in a sunbathed beach. Instead of clashing, however, these contrasting feelings somehow complement each other, at once easing the drama and adding some deepness and melancholy to the feel good beats. If post-punk and surf music are a weird combination, it’s even more awkward to see an Americanized version of eighties British music, but the result is an interesting and rich mix of influences and backgrounds. It’s like a band bringing together Ian Curtis and Bez, only less absurd. On stage, the conflicting identity layers persist; instead of the hipsters traditional glooming faces and blasé attitude, they present the audience with energetic performances and flirting greetings.
Nick Cave has just released the sequel to his most recent music adventure, Grinderman 2, promising more of the same good, not so old, loud, witty and dirty music. The group formed in 2007 and works as an alter ego for the long running Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, showing similarities to Cave’s post punk Birthday Party. Still raw and angry, only more mature and with moustaches.
At first glance, their diagonal fringes and tiny jeans left the impression we were facing yet another indie band whose “moment” would last precisely 36 minutes. But the more we listened to Foals the less the haircuts matter. Press types have fallen for them, and so have indie kids and even those difficult 30-something music nerds. Antidotes, their first album, was partly raw fun and partly brain impressive, with its African beats and catchy tunes.
It’s the old tale of the awarded artist who fails to live up to a promising career of masterpieces’ mass production after making into several music-to-listen-before-you-die lists, then getting dropped by big label and going into a few years of introspection before coming out with something more thoughtful and confessional. Badly Drawn Boy even has the look and name that fit perfectly on the tale, now in its final part.
