Klaxons: Landmarks of Lunacy

Klaxons
Landmarks of Lunacy
Rating: Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It

The end of 2010 and beginning of 2011 has seen a flurry of bands releasing free music, from Gorillaz releasing a full album and M.I.A. putting out a mixtape, and now Klaxons releasing an EP of 5 songs. The songs were recorded in 2008 with James Ford, of Simian Mobile Disco, during sessions that were scrapped for the follow up to their debut album Myths of the Near Future.  Prior to those sessions, Klaxons had already recorded a full set of songs influenced heavily by dubstep, prog rock, and psychedelia, that their label refused to release as being "too experimental."  Apparently, the sessions with Ford were intended to bring their sound back down to earth, however, the usual "creative differences" were cited and Klaxons moved on to Ross Robinson, and Surfing the Void was the end result.

Because it is such a short EP, I have tackled each of the songs individually and provided a link to the songs to listen to as well.  At the end of the review, there is also a link to Klaxons website where you can download the entire EP for free if you like what you hear.



"The Pale Blue Dot," has a lovely vocal and meandering guitar part, which erupts into a muted metal riff, which echoes the direction they would take with Robinson on Surfing.  The lyrics, as in most of their songs, are an indecipherable mishmash of Sci-Fi themes, but are still gloriously goofy.



"Silver Forest" picks up the tempo a bit, featuring an intertwined guitar motif that flows in and out of the verses.  The song features some lovely harmonies, and a slight psychedelic feel.  Strangely, most of the songs seem to veer far away from their original "nu-rave" sound, and almost forgo keyboards altogether.



"Ivy Leaves" is the moody centerpiece of the EP, with the guitars droning over a hushed, muffled drum pattern and washes of organ, slowly building into a cavern of gorgeous noise.



"Wildeflowers" sounds almost like a funeral march, with somber drumming, pianos and organs, buffeted with 50s Sci-Fi synths.  Jamie Reynold's vocal is particularly fragile and haunting.



"Marble Fields" is the longest song on the EP, clocking in a just over 7 minutes, and sounds the most like Klaxons from Myths, with a reverb heavy guitar part, fuzzy drone bass, and bar-room piano.  Again, the lyrics make little to no sense, which is still part of their charm.  The chorus is one of their best, almost a sing-a-long.

Based on these 5 songs, it was an interesting time for Klaxons.  Unusually subdued, the tracks are all fairly somber and mid-tempo, showing none of the dance floor influence of Myths nor the hard-edged experimentation of Surfing.  You can definitely sense that band really had no idea where to head with their sound.  Landmarks of Lunacy is an intriguing listen based on the differences between their first two albums.  An even more intriguing listen would be to hear the unreleased "experimental" songs to see how drastically different they turned out to be.

Download the EP at the Klaxons website: http://klaxons.net/

Rating Guide

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top albums of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and peaks one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been trimmed or polished.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.