On Friday night I went to Club Loaded at Rickshaw to check out Nightmoves and Ricky Haley. Ricky had booked Luxxury on our UK tour this past September at his club, Stealth, and filmed our show. When we got home we found that in addition to getting the show he’d found the time to record some bonus footage. At first it wasn’t clear what it was: “wait, was that an anteater? A shrew?” And then we figured it out. Nice cock, mate!
Matt from Nightmoves and I discussed Klaxons and the horrible “New Rave” hype which, to anyone who actually lived through rave, is a pretty hysterical misnomer. Yes, there is a siren in that one song. And they cover Kicks Like a Mule’s “The Bouncer.” But other than that, Klaxons (and Shitdisco and Datarock and the like) are really just a slightly more indie/Brit-pop varietal of the genre so recently known as “dance-rock.” Bigstereo has a nice thread about this, as does Phil Sherburne in Pitchfork, so I won’t go into it here. But suffice to say that The NME are McLaren-tastically good at packaging pop culture, and The Klaxons are simply This Year’s Electro-Model.
I think part of why so many people don’t seem to notice the absence of dancey-ness from Klaxons’ music is that up until now there have been more remixes, photo shoots and articles than actual songs floating around. But last week’s UK release of their debut album “Myths of the Near Future” its clear that this is neither a rave or even an electro band, but rather a good ol’ fashion indie rock outfit wearing a neon hat.
MP3: “Isle of Her” – Klaxons
Buy the album on Amazon
By contrast, here’s an “Old Rave” classic from 1990 (with a message 16 years ahead of its time):
MP3: “James Brown is Dead” – LA Style
Buy the album on Amazon.
Watch it on Youtube.
Bit of a difference, eh? Just as anyone who grew up with The Sex Pistols and The Ramones finds it painful to hear younger kids refer to Blink182 as “punk,” so too will a generation raised on glow sticks soon be irritated to find the name, image and ideology of “their” movement all but divorced from the music and lifestyle for which it was named.
Culture is funny that way.
Finally, as electroclash became discopunk, which morphed into dance-rock, so too was rave begat (begotten?) by acid house. So, going back one trend earlier, and stretching the definition of “relevant segueway” in doing so, here’s my favorite acid jam from 1989, evoking memories of sneaking out to 1015 Folsom with Laska and Lea (back when it was called Das Klub). Produced by Mark Moore it’s the fantastic proto-sample-a-delic anthem “Theme to S’Express” by S’Express. Uno, dos, tres, quatro!
MP3: “Theme to S’Express” – S’Express
Buy the album on Amazon.
Bonus: an ill Nightmoves remix.
MP3: “No More Conversations (Nightmoves Remix)” – Freeform Five
Nightmoves on Beatport
Enough of the history lesson, I’ll post some of my favorite new electro tracks later this week.
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I have the Theme to S’Express 21st Century remixes on wax.
Remixes by Simon Acetone, King Roc, and Punx Soundcheck
grab it at dancerecords.com
really party rockin tracks
James Brown is Dead was going to be on my new mix, but it got bumped!
eh, maybe you should read one of those articles before hating. take everything at face value and never compare then with now..it ain’t gonna happen.
Where exactly do you see “hating” happening in my post? The Klaxons record is surprisingly good, given how much hype it had to live up to – if anything I’m suggesting people give their actual songs a good listen (hence my posting an original song and not a remix).
If you sense hating, go back and reread the piece. You’ll see I’m simply pointing out how arbitrary the genre labels are. My point is that it’s worth investigating who invented the language you’re using and what it signifies.
In this case, The Klaxons themselves apparently coined the term but have since disowned it. Its ubiquity comes from The NME, who have a long history of creating neologistic nomenclature to package and sell magazines and tours.
There’s nothing wrong with that as long as – as you put it – people don’t take The Emperor’s New Genre at face value.
so, how can Sigue Sigue Sputnik fit into all this?
kind of seriously: there’s a 20 lag time btwn new, timely music/culture and it’s revival…
i.e. in the 90’s we had 70’s retro; in the 00’s, 80’s… we’re coming up on a BIG 90’s revival…
the question is: after so much looking back, will there be much original, non-derivative music after 2010?
Good point, I think we’re right on schedule as Rave was early 90’s and it is indeed very much in vogue now, albeit “in certain circles.” And what circles are those? And how “important” are they? Aye, there’s the rub.
To some degree it’s a tastemaker/media/message phenomenon, which is why The NME situation is so interesting. The UK is so small compared to the US, and the “official” music press is so concentrated (The NME having merged with Melody Maker years ago after putting Sounds out of business) that it’s relatively easy for a small editorial staff in a London office to create and sustain a national media phenomenon, pretty much overnight.
By contrast in the US, the unfairly derided “Electroclash” movement was already considered passé in downtown NYC years before most people in the rest of the country had even heard the term.
Furthermore there’s a much more severe genre formatting fascism in this country versus the eclecticism served up on UK radio, music TV etc.
This topic is pretty complex and rich terrain for discussion so I’ll quit while I’m still relatively ahead here…
blahblahblah
Well said, Johnatron.
I was driving around today, playing “Golden Skans” on repeat for a while, and decided Klaxons are this year’s Arctic Monkeys. This is not a bad thing; just watch when the album gets released in the US. They will become the new “it” UK band and suddenly everyone – not just the blogs – will be talking about the them. It will happen and you will see. And this, also, is not necessarily a bad thing, just an observation.
Personally, I can’t wait for Klaxons to get too big for indie kids. They’re a great band.
but the artic monkeys were horrible and sounded nothing like the klaxons………
The artic monkeys were just doing the same old thing that had been done for years. This is a bit different
I never said they sounded alike. I just said they’ll be the new “it” band from the UK – like the Arctic Monkeys were the new “it” UK band last year.
That’s all.
Exactly my point, Chris – it’s about how packaging shapes opinions. Every year the NME annoints a new king, deposes the previous one (2006: Artic Monkeys are the new Kaiser Chiefs! 2005: Bloc Party is the new Franz! etc.) and stamps it with a name. The NME has such a hold on “mainstream alternative” taste, it’s like the Microsoft of Indie Rock.
- BvL
Ha. Ha. So true, that’s why I don’t read NME – it’s all hype and fluff. I also don’t read it because I’m not a huge fan of seeing Pete Doherty shirtless and that seems to be in every fucking issue.
You know what I did read an issue of the other week and kind of liked? URB. I think I might check it out on a regular basis.
And c’mon Baron, Blink 182 aren’t “punk”? All these years…tell me it isn’t so! I bet next your going to tell me Avril Lavigne isn’t punk, either.
URB has gotten better recently, and BPM has its moments though they kinda lost me with their recent Mickey Avalon cover.
Overall, I still think XLR8R is the best electronic music magazine in print.
totally agree
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