Klaxons ‘Surfing The Void’ // First Listen

Klaxons
‘Surfing The Void’
(Polydor)

Three years after the release of their bombastic and hugely influential debut ‘Myths Of The Near Future’, Klaxons return with ‘Surfing The Void’. Produced by Ross Robinson, famous for his work with acts such as Slipknot, At The Drive In and The Cure, it’s a far cry from their day-glo enthused first LP. Not a siren or whiff of rave-hedonism in sight, the album’s influences draw far more from guitar driven, gothic sounds, but with the Klaxons’ weird and supernatural lyrics embedded throughout. Harriet Gibsone gives us a breakdown of the new album…

‘Echoes’
A colossal punch kicks off the Klaxons’ second album. Scratchy, angular guitars throttle your attention until a tsunami of thunderous pounding drums swoop down, picking up James Righton’s airy vocals as they pass. His ethereal vocals wisp in-between a pounding bassline; imagine ‘Above And So Below’’s sterner, more guitar drenched brother. Plus, with lyrical turns like “Echoes from another world” and “true horizons take a turn”, Klaxons’ are still as hazy and fantastical as ever.

‘The Same Space’
Jamie Reynolds and James’ vocals tumble over one another, their voices warbling more like pop stars than alt.indie pioneers. The song’s beat has a Clash-like impact, full of staccato punch and venom. The marching beat pounds and pounds relentlessly, pummelling your ears with real punk bite. The song goes on with its bolshie bravado and it starts to lose momentum a little until the last push of merciless drums which up the pace before dissolving into glittering, shimmering guitars.

‘Surfing The Void’
An otherworldly fade-in drifts into ‘Surfing The Void’ before frantic pianos chink as if being pushed down a staircase. High, celestial voices call-out, similar to ‘Golden Scans’’ angelic waver. Any niceness is cut short suddenly by frantic, ‘Magik’-styled screeches and creepy synths. Towards the end, the track reaches a heady height of hysterical vocals. Manic and exciting.

‘Valley Of The Calm Trees’
Jamie’s ghostly vocals swirl, fitting perfectly with ‘Valley Of The Calm Trees’’ psychedelic resonance. “Let us imagine…” he sings, as the song builds into a hazy, mesmeric miasma, until the song ignites into full-on rock. After a while, it steeples into a lull, and dizzily glides around with a sinister Cure-like feel to it. Finally, it peters out with the sound of the band singing what sounds like the words “vampire helium”. Those probably aren’t the words.

‘Venusia’
Pounding drums echo like the start of Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill’, before the song turns to stormy melancholy reminiscent of Echo And The Bunnymen. “Venusia/Nothing is out of sync/You make so much sense to me”, James sings in a pretty emo vocal, to the extent that he almost sounds like the one with the big side-burns in Fall Out Boy. The song pulsates with a Human League synth-lead feel. As Jamie sings “Take me by the hand…” you’re lead into a dark wood of gothic guitar swirls and stirring keys. The snapping of a type writer finishes ‘Venusia’ off,  before claps and the studio sound of ‘That was good!’ and ‘One take!’

‘Extra Astronomical’
After the previous track’s downbeat solemnity, there’s finally some pulse-racing beats! ‘Extra Astronomical’ starts off with rusty guitars scratching through your ears, their vocals distorted as they sing of spaced-out “celestial catastrophes” and “orbiting machines”. There’s something a little Crystal Castles about it all, with the eerie, tinny vocals, whilst at times there are flecks of heavier Slipkotty elements.

‘Twin Flames’
A dancier beat pounds as they sing “Into the cycle/In the here and now”; its up-tempo drum beats are like the stroppy flamboyance of Adam And The Ants. ‘Twin Flames’ erupts in a euphoric swirl of sounds towards the end. Apart from that it doesn’t really go anywhere.

‘Flashover’
Eeek… the first new track to appear via the internet last month, ‘Flashover’’s got a menacing start, with a deranged Horrors-esque aura, the ominous guitars and stirring synth effects swim over the lyrics “Here comes the flashover”. A gritty, grizzly breakdown snaps through the ethereal vocals; “Myriads of silver discs” sings somebody. Then a nasty visceral roaring chorus rips through, a piano enters with another emo breakdown, and James sings “Now we have become so unalone” before a big ol’ slap-wallop drums-guitar-RAWK ending.

‘Future Memories’
With the vocals at the forefront, Klaxons’ typically mystical lyrics saunter along, “From a starting point and the present time/Follow the straight line and eventually we know you’ll end up right behind” they coo. It sounds pretty wishy-washy in a glaze of blissed out euphoria, underpinned by a throbbing bassline, “The future’s in our memories/The past is just a guess”.

‘Cypherspeed’
Crunchy guitar grunts, weird whizzes and headachey keyboards ring out. ‘Cypherspeed’ could sit easily on The Horrors’ ‘Primary Colours’. Big ballsy tribal drums and chanting lyrics resound, as the end builds towards an hysterical climax. Then, at the crucial time, a moment of peace holds your attention until BAM! the song’s fervent anger kicks back in. Wobbly keys take hold and Klaxons wrap-up the album with an unrelenting mantra and swelling, thudding vibrations until the end.

In summary, ‘Surfing The Void’ is dark, mysterious and full of explosions of euphoric light. Although not as attention-grabbing as their debut, it feels a lot more like a conceptual album; a more focussed, genre-specific take on their unqiue brand of rabid indie.

‘Surfing The Void’ will be reviewed in a future issue of The Fly.