Klaxons

Fresh from the U.K cult success of their debut single "Gravity's Rainbow" earlier this year, Klaxons (that's Jamie, Simon and James to their local Vicar) are now venturing Stateside with their offerings of post punk sensibilities with their deep love of Rave music described by Jaime as "the most short lived genre of all time. It never even existed" and classic Pop culture that sticks like knives out of their every chord change. Resulting in an instant mind bending, shoe stomping hit hailed as "The most worthy indie dancefloor filler of the year" – NME

Touching down in 2006 from a place undetermined to wrestle the hearts and minds of the nations music lovers from last year's seemingly all-pervading po-faced, post-punk moroseness. The band describes their sound as Josef K-meets-Baby D, with a twinkle in their eye, surely the first to mention those names in the same sentence.

American audiences will immediately see the nod towards influential 90's bands such as Happy Mondays and Altern8. Definitions aside, what you hear is post punk psychedelic pop that meets pill popping dance music and it sure works.

"A trio with heads jam packed with ideas, ideas that layer influences and an imagination with genuine talent." – Dazed & Confused

Xan Valleys E.P lurches out demonically from a world of distortion and "drummatic" madness, stuffing the peaks and breakdowns into moments of a sheer pop meltdown. If ever a band were all about the moment, all about Myspace as a progression of rave cultures underground communication, and all about creating a live experience every bit as exhilarating as their singles, this is the Klaxons signature sound.

The opening track "Gravity's Rainbow" doesn't mess around as it welcomes and steers the listener into an eerie world of pumping psychedelia combined with melodic and romantic vocals blissfully taking you on a pleasantly trippy ride through their wondrous world and another dimension that is Xan Valleys.


One listen to "Atlantis To Interzone" and the several miles of dots between those influences are quickly joined, where screaming sirens and samples straight out of a field in '89 give way to the punked out half-falsetto, half melodic breakneck vocals and drums.

Klaxon, a French verb meaning to "toot" certainly alludes to the raving mania of their audiences who frantically "get down" to the sounds with horns and whistles intact. But also the word's origin is actually "a form of tribal drumming," Simon says "used to communicate over long distances, pre amplification and telephones." Therefore, these London lads really are practicing the art of channelling a much loved yet equally forgotten musical era now reinvented and given back to us in the form of Klaxons.