Klaxons and Jamie T nominated for a Mercury

I've just heard the nominees for this September's Mercury Music Prize and I'm very impressed. For those of you not in the know, the Mercury is the most well-respected award in the biz for the year's best album (previous winning albums came from Arctic Monkeys in 2006, Antony and The Johnsons in 2005, Franz Ferdinand in 2004 and Dizzy Rascal in 2003). Well, this year sees Arctic Monkeys and Dizzy nominated again, as well as the marvelous Amy Winehouse and NYPC. Most pleasingly though are the inclusion of the brilliant Klaxons album and the equally awesome Jamie T. I'd love Klaxons to win as I adore them, but, if you fancy a flutter, I reckon the clever money is on London rapscallion Jamie T or Winehouse for victory.

I'm so delighted that Klaxons are being recognised that I thought I'd revisit my review from a few months back.KLAXONS
Myths Of The Near Future

When I spoke to Klaxons a couple of months back, they claimed the New Rave tag that they had been lumbered with was nothing more than a media construct, and one listen to their debut long-player confirms this. While Klaxons are certainly offering something new, there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of rave within the 11 tracks on offer here.

Anyone who thinks the band are nothing more than style-over-content, fluoro-clad scenesters will be surprised to learn that, in spite of the false pigeonholing, Myths Of The Near Future is genuinely exciting and visionary, and manages to experimentally fuse dark pop with elements of punk and dance. The album is filled with space-age themes, but rather than having a pessimistic vision of an apocalyptic world in the vein of Muse, Klaxons face the future armed with an Acid House smile and a pocketful of pills, making this 35-mintues of dancey, mashed-up fun of the highest order.

Current radio favourite Golden Skans harks back to the best of 80s pop, while previous singles Atlantis to Interzone and Gravity’s Rainbow are high-speed, amphetamine-fuelled dance-punk car crashes. Meanwhile, hidden away at the back of the album is a cover of Grace’s classic It’s Not Over Yet, which is a delicious piece of gurning, synth-drenched karaoke.

With Myths Of The Near Future, Klaxons have defiantly transcended the hype and created a truly dazzling album.

Rave? Hardly. Apocalyptic pop? Possibly. Bloody brilliant? Absolutely.

(My latest interview with Klaxons will be a Drum Media cover story soon...)