Looking for a band who sum up the genre-vaulting, scene-splicing,
boundary-pushing spirit of music in 2008? A band who can skip between
grime, emo, drum'n'bass and euphoric rave in the space of a single chorus?
A band whose very existence causes division between trad-rock bores
and the youthful, enthusiastic, attention-hopping minds of a younger
generation? Then you need look no further than Hadouken!, a band who've
spent the last two years surfing the cutting edge of the music scene,
armed with enough sonic ideas to make your common-or-garden indie band
run for cover.
The last year of Hadouken!'s hectic ascension to the top flight has
seen them blow the packed Radio 1 tents away at Reading and Leeds festivals,
rocking sold-out crowds touring across the UK ending in a blistering
show at London's Astoria, and building an insanely devoted online fanbase
(88,000 myspace friends and counting), while at the same time inspiring
a range of DIY day-glo clothing, demolishing a million and one pigeonholes
and growing into one of the most forward-thinking bands in the country.
Following the release of their USB-only 'Not Here To Please You' Mixtape
in November 2007, and after months of hardcore grafting in the studio,
Hadouken! are about to release their debut album - 'Music For An Accelerated
Culture'. A dazzling 11-track journey through indie, dubstep, grime,
hardcore, acid house, and UK punk, consider it a defining statement
- the dovetailing, myriad-influenced sound of 2008.
"We're definitely a product of the environment," agrees vocalist
and Hadouken! main man James Smith. "We digest so much music, from
genre to genre, so fast. And our music is moving quickly, as well -
we're not planning on staying still. You have to keep ahead of the game."
'Keeping ahead of the game' is in many ways in fact, exactly what 'Music
For An Accelerated Culture' is all about. Last year, as critics frantically
tried to compartmentalise them as "new rave" or "grindie",
each record Hadouken! put out felt like a swerve towards a new direction.
And so it follows that, just as people are starting to get used to the
Leeds five-piece as purveyors of jokey indie floor-fillers, along comes
an album with a sinister undercurrent.
James: "There's a tone to the first songs, like Dance Lesson, that's
fun… but we wanted a go at things that weren't so fun, things that
were a bit darker really, which is why there's only two old songs on
the record (Liquid Lives and That Boy That Girl). We wanted to move
things on, like Radiohead or The Prodigy would do with each new record.
It's a step forward, but in a way it's also a step back, because we
went right back to the electronic, dancey style of the original demos
that got us off our feet. There's some dancey stuff, some harsher stuff,
a mix of singing, MC-ing and shouty punk vocals. But at the same time,
we weren't afraid of the album having a real pop sensibility to it."
Which is why this is a record within which the epic, emo-tinged sound
of 'Driving Nowhere' can happily nestle on the same tracklist as album
opener 'Gate Smashed Gate Crash' (which kickstarts proceedings with
the declaration "Let's get this party started") and the mind-boggling
'Wait For You', which, in James' own words, contains "a dark tone
and fucked up production. It's got backward vocals and reverb and is
quite dubstep-tinged. It's overpowering."
It is, however, more than just the music that has changed
at Hadouken! HQ: the lyrics have got darker too. Namechecking Douglas
Coupland's seminal novel Generation X (whose subtitle is 'Tales For
An Accelerated Culture') was a meaningful choice. "After we'd written
the album we were looking for a unifying link between the tracks and
it became clear they were all separate stories and that a lot of them
had a morality to them," says James.
And so, underpinning the humourous snapshots of booze Britain in 'Liquid
Lives' is a very serious and insistent message about a generation of
kids clinging on to alcopop bottles. 'Wait For You', meanwhile, is a
disturbing tale of stalker-proportion obsession. And whereas a track
like 'Get Smashed Gate Crash' might, on the surface, seem to be about
smashing up a house party in true Skins style, the underlying issue
is about responsibility. As James explains: "Whose fault is it?
The parents who left the child alone? The child that smashed up their
place? You hear a lot of stuff about 'today's youth', but the people
who complain are the ones who raised them."
Such progression is the sign of a band who've had to grow up in public
rather rapidly. After all, it was only two years ago that they formed.
James had been going out with keyboardist Alice Spooner since they met
doing a foundation course in their native Hertfordshire, but it wasn't
until they both headed off to university in Leeds and met Dan Rice (guitar)
that their maverick musical ideas began to blossom. Influenced by the
DIY ethos of Leeds' indie label Dance! To The Radio, Dan and James started
putting out limited edition vinyl on their own Surface Noise label,
before realising their obsession with music would be best served in
their own band. Dan recruited younger brother Nick on drums, whereas
bassist Chris Purcell was a friend of Nick's from Guilford.
Whilst there's a tradition of indie bands discovering dance music, James
did things the opposite way around. As a teenager, he was making grime
records with True Tiger Camp in Watford, and identifying obscure dubplates
for 1Xtra's Pirate Sessions. He still describes producing as his "first
love" which is why he manned the desks for most of the tracks on
Music For An Accelerated Culture, with a little help from his friends
Rich Costey (Liquid Lives) and Jacknife Lee (Declaration Of War, Driving
Nowhere, Game Over).
Like with all the best bands and movements, it wasn't long before the
band's eclectic taste fizzled together to produce some rather tasty
sonic treats.
Dan: "When we came back to London, it was great going
out to clubs and hearing them play indie next to drum'n'bass next to
grime next to metal… and suddenly realising there was a crowd of
people who wanted to hear that all together."
James: "I've always had such eclectic taste, but
I didn't think there'd be so many people into the same thing. We'd go
to squat parties in east London, and seeing it going down well was amazing."
Realising they weren't alone in having an insatiable appetite for new
noises is what gave the band the confidence to write their genre-fusing
songs. It's defined them as a band that could only ever have existed
in 2008 - representing the mix'n'match, guilt-free, try-anything approach
to music that will surely stamp its mark on this decade.
James: "What's great about the music scene now is that, it might
not make you the millions of pounds it did back in the day, because
nobody buys CDs anymore, but you're much more free creatively to do
what you want. You don't have to be dance or punk or indie, you can
stick all those things into the melting pot and try and make it work."
Which is why you'll hear everything from old Dreamscape
and Raindance rave tapes to what James describes as a "real punk
aesthetic" on 'Music For An Accelerated Culture'. And it's not
just the music that's breaking boundaries. As with their mixtape, which
was the first USB-only release, Hadouken! are pushing the limits of
formats once again with a special limited edition box-set edition of
the album, containing extras including DVD material and illustrated
lyrics. It'll be numbered and signed by the band, and available exclusively
from www.hadouken.co.uk. Fans who purchase the limited box set will
instantly become part of 'Aerials' an exclusive community that has exclusive
access to a vat of Hadouken! music, free tickets, special merchandise
and discounts, as well as regular contact with the band themselves.
"We wanted to create a way that fans could engage with the band,"
enthuses James. "In this day of disposable downloads, we wanted
something the fans could value and cherish. The box set got me excited
because it's going to be something you can hold and appreciate. We've
always done that - signed copies, hand painted copies, USB mixtapes…
this was just the next step."
As with anything breaking boundaries, their music has earned them some
critics, who get their knickers in a twist groaning about their bright
colours and confusing music. A bit like your granddad might do. But
Hadouken!'s music doesn't belong to grumbling musos. It belongs to the
legions of young, neon-splattered fans in homemade H! t-shirts, who
own every online release, who start crowd-surfing before the band are
even onstage.
"You're doing something wrong if you're pleasing everyone,"
rallies James. "The next generation should piss off the older people.
We want to make a dent in the musical history of the UK, so obviously
we're gonna have to upset a few people along the way."
And why try and please everyone when you've only got the one shot at
making that seminal debut album?
"This album had to be of the moment for us," concludes James.
"It had to capture everything we're about right now: energy, vibrancy
and wanting to separate ourselves from the pack by creating an uncompromising
pop record."
Uncompromising pop record? Separate from the pack? Energetic and vibrant?
Consider Hadouken!'s debut album mission accomplished.
'Music For An Accelerated Culture' is out now.
