Klaxons

Klaxons are a English indie rock/dance punk band, based in London. The word 'klaxon' is derived from the Greek verb klazō, meaning "to shriek".Following the release of numerous 7-inch vinyls on different independent record labels, as well as the success of previous singles "Magick" and "Golden Skans", the band released their debut album, Myths of the Near Future on January 29, 2007. The album won the 2007 Nationwide Mercury Prize. After playing festivals and headlining tours worldwide (including the NME Indie Rave Tour) during late 2006 - 2007, the band started working on their follow-up album in October 2007.

Jamie Reynolds grew up in Bournemouth and Southampton. He dropped out of school to work in a record shop, and moved to London after being made redundant. He met James Righton and Simon Taylor-Davis, who was his girlfriend's roommate. All three had previously played in a number of other bands, including Reef and Oasis cover bands. Simon and James grew up in Stratford-upon-Avon, where they attended the same school. They shared a house with members of Pull Tiger Tail in New Cross, London, briefly playing together as 'Hollywood Is a Verb' in 2004.James taught Simon how to play guitar, and with Reynolds' redundancy money they bought a studio kit.They began recording under their early guise of "Klaxons (Not Centaurs)", a quote from Filippo Tommaso Marinetti's futurism text The Futurist Manifesto.

Klaxons' debut single, "Gravity's Rainbow" was released on March 29, 2006 on Angular Records. Only 500 copies were released, and all were printed on a 7" vinyl decorated by the band themselves. Radio 1's Steve Lamacq was the first DJ to play the band and band recorded a Maida Vale session for his show on the strength of 'Gravity's Rainbow'. The band's second single, "Atlantis to Interzone", was released on June 12 of the same year. It was their first release for new label Merok and led to further coverage in the NME. The song enjoyed even more radio coverage including play from Zane Lowe and daytime BBC Radio 1 plays from disc jockey Jo Whiley, who repeatedly, and mistakenly, called the song "Atlantic To Interscope". Zane Lowe also wrongly credited the song as "Atlantis To Interscope".

In 2006, the band signed to Polydor Records. Their first single for the label, "Magick", was released on October 30, 2006 and reached #29 in the UK Top 40 the following week.

HMV describes Klaxons as "acid-rave sci-fi punk-funk", a phrase lifted directly from Tim Chester's Radar feature in NME, while their MySpace page touts 'Psychedelic / Progressive / Pop'. However, they are one of the isolated acts being referred to as 'Nu Rave', a genre term coined by Angular Records founder Joe Daniel, who released the trio's first single. Though the band's sound is decidedly art rock, they draw upon some less common influences - notably the rave culture of the 1990s, which they appropriate and redefine in a post-modern fashion. Their influences are perhaps most represented in their covers of rave hits "The Bouncer" by Kicks Like a Mule and "Not Over Yet" by Grace. Both tracks have since been released by the band, the first as part of a double a-side with "Gravity's Rainbow" in March 2006 and the latter as a single on June 25, 2007 titled "It's Not Over Yet".

Klaxons' music is often supernatural and magic-realist in theme, as shown in a number of song titles and lyrical content. Examples of this are "As Above, So Below" (favourite saying of Aleister Crowley), "Atlantis to Interzone" (a William Burroughs reference), "Magick" (Crowley) and "Four Horsemen of 2012"/"Gravity's Rainbow" (Thomas Pynchon references). The lyrics to "Forgotten Works" are based on Richard Brautigan's In Watermelon Sugar.