Klaxons

English dance-punk band Klaxons are best known as the central vehicle of the much vaunted and debated ‘new rave’ scene. Their debut album, Myths of the Near Future (2007), won the Mercury Music Prize.

Klaxons formed as a three-piece (with drummer Steffan Halperin acting as an unofficial fourth member) in 2005 in London. In early 2006 the band released their first singles, “Gravity’s Rainbow” and “Atlantis to Interzone”, both of which were picked up by DJs on Radio 1 and journalists at popular British music mag New Musical Express.

The term ‘new rave’ first appeared on a press release for an early Klaxons single. The band mentioned it again in an interview and NME ran with the term, hyping it into a buzzword to describe Klaxons and various other groups. New rave (or ‘nu rave’) became a bit of a beast, with no-one really sure if it was a genre, or a scene, or just media shorthand for any young British band who fused indie-rock with dance music, particularly those who wore brightly coloured clothes and sold glowsticks at their merchandise stands. Klaxons soon disassociated themselves from the ‘new rave’ tag, claiming it was just a joke that got out of hand.

Klaxons signed to Polydor at the end of the year and released their debut album Myths of the Near Future in January 2007, reaching No.2 on the album chart. It was preceded by single “Golden Skans”, which became a Top 10 chart hit. Various remixes of album tracks circulated online, further helping the band’s popularity. In September 2007, Myths of the Near Future won the prestigious Mercury Music Prize, awarded to the best British album of the previous 12 months.