Klaxons: Rave, Rave, Rock n' Roll

  Much to the chagrin of many 20-something music fans, rave has been rather swept under the carpet by most of the music media and even by many of the boring middle aged bastards who were lucky enough to have experienced its infamous gatherings first time around.  However, such is the fickle nature of the industry, things are undergoing a little bit of a sea change at the moment. Hardcore revival nights are cropping up all over the country, illegal warehouse parties are recreating the defiant spirit of the second summer of love and even Noel Gallagher has been spotted wearing an Altern-8 mask when he does his SL2 turn at his local karaoke. And now, seemingly oblivious to Noel’s efforts, we have Klaxons, a band who have single-handedly – and perhaps inevitably – brought day-glo back into our gloomy, Editors-sodden lives. Hallelujah.                         We meet Klaxons and their posse (sorry for the early ‘90s lingo – that’s the rave talking) in the Barfly club ahead of their gig at Liverpool indie night Panic! and before long the conversation turns to those halcyon days that everyone in the room was too young to experience first hand. Gigwise forgets that we’re in the company of Londoners and meets bemused glances when mention is made of ‘doing a Gary’. Fortunately, when this hack explains that it’s Scouse rhyming slang – for Gary Ablett (former Liverpool and Everton F.C. carthorse) read ‘tablet’ – we’re brought back on to the same wavelength. "So that’s what we ask for later, then… " bassist Jamie smirks. Crash course in Scouse Class A procurement: class dismissed.   But there’s plenty of time for play later, as for the past few months and at least the next four Klaxons are very busy boys. In the midst of a tour that has seen them share stages with kindred spirits Metronomy and Shitdisco (duetting onstage with the former on recent single ‘Gravity’s Rainbow’), they are finally starting to see the devotion with which fandom rewards its idols: "Some guy in Plymouth had seen us in a magazine and made his own Klaxons t-shirt," Jamie explains.  Singer/keyboardist James shakes his head disbelievingly at the memory: "That bloke missed his own single launch to be there!"   Klaxons are also riding a bit of a crest of an ecstasy-high wave with the white-gloved punk funk of ‘Gravity’s Rainbow’ having sold out all of its copies and the song’s video being on rotation on MTV2. If you haven’t seen the video, then you’re missing one of the most fantastically migraine-inducing graphics-on-a-budget mind****s since The Chart Show ran a dance chart at the height of hardcore rave. But it nearly didn’t end up that way, as James explains: "The make up artist – he was a nice guy – but he thought we were some kind of goth band. He painted Jamie’s face black – from here up (gestures at the bridge of his nose) – and gave me these huge tears in black and red that looked like a rash. We looked like vampires, so we told him ‘look, we’re not a goth band.’ So he changed the colour to blue."  That, plus 22 hours of live editing (or "22 hours of nonsense", as guitarist Simon prefers to describe it): not your average debut indie vid.   From what Simon has to say, the video for forthcoming single – the fantastically-named nod to Naked Lunch ‘Atlantis to Interzone’ – should be a lot less painful, as this time it’ll be animated: "It’s gonna be a big A-Ha thing, with us jumping through windows and stuff!"  And what of the song itself – a version of which has been on their myspace page for months?  James seems confident: "We’ve re-recorded it with James Ford (Mystery Jets and Test Icicles producer), who’s made it a lot bigger, a lot dancier. It sounds really good."  Better still, an album is now in the offing too: "We’re going in June to write it, July to record it.  We’ve done 5 tracks with James, then we might use some other producers – we’ll probably go with Errol Alkan (resident DJ at legendary club nights Trash and Bugged Out). He’s not really produced a band before so it’s really exciting." Sounds like a natural choice, given your taste for the electronic side of things? "Yeah, and he’s got his guitar-based, indie kind of roots as well. He was in a band in the ‘90s, but he won’t tell us who!"  Errol Alkan: DJ/producer extraordinaire and also, it seems, a man with a past.