Klaxons

Klaxons are a Mercury Prize winning English band, based in London. The word 'klaxon' is derived from the Greek verb klazō, meaning "to shriek", and most commonly refers to air-raid sirens or other warning devices. The band consists of Jamie Reynolds (bass, vocals), James Righton (keyboards, vocals) and Simon Taylor-Davis (guitar) with drummer Steffan Halperin being officially added in 2007.

Following 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 headlining their first tour (the 2007 NME Indie Rave Tour), as well as playing numerous festivals and headlining tours worldwide, the band started working on their follow-up album in October 2007.

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".

While the band are consistently hailed as the defining act of the sparsely-populated Nu Rave movement, Klaxons have worked to avoid being typecast as champions of the disputed genre that may or may not exist. Indeed, it is questionable whether or not the style referred to as "New Rave" is even appreciably different from the older genre dance-punk. Even so, Klaxons member Jamie Reynolds expressed no regrets at the dubious honor, saying that "...it's great that it started as an in-joke and became a minor youth subculture"