Hadouken! @ Koko, 6.09.07
Those kids in Hadouken really know how to throw down. For proof, one needn’t look any further than Friday night’s over-the-top gig at Koko. It was their second performance of the night (the first having been at ULU only two hours prior), but you couldn’t tell given their contagious energy and the crowd’s overwhelmingly enthusiastic (to say the least) reaction. After a disappointing set by fellow new ravers Late of the Pier, Hadouken! took the stage to an audience that was already pumped and ready to go thanks to a downright impeccable DJ set from Mickey Four.
I’m not sure if new rave really exists or not at this point, but assuming it does, you won’t find anything more new rave than Hadouken!, with the possible exception of London’s 2012 Olympics logo. Neon synths pierce through the ether, dancey drumbeats pervade and shouty vocals are the name of the game, and Hadouken’s debut single “That Boy That Girl” might as well be the apotheosis of the genre (if you’re willing to legitimize it as such) for all I’m concerned. As their only single and most well-known song to this point, it was logically the pinnacle and finale of their set and sent the kids into an absolute frenzy. And “kids” they were, as I’d be willing to wager that a good 3/4 of the crowd were under 21, but I’ll take a venue full of drunk-ass teenagers flipping their shit for a band over a room full of NYC’s cooler-than-thou hipsters any day.
Other highlights included new single “Liquid Lives”, which burst forth from the speakers two songs into their set. I wasn’t terribly keen on the track when the promo first found its way to me a few days ago, but that “Drink! Smoke! Fuck! Fight!” chorus absolutely OWNED in a live setting and you really can’t fuck with those sinister-ass horns, nearly as massive as they are synthesized. Suffice it to say, I’m considerably fonder of it after a few more listens and last night’s show, but I still have to give the edge to that unfuckwithable debut single.
New track “Declaration of War” sounded brilliant as well and even featured some actual singing from frontman James Hadouken, and “Tuning In”, a track only available in remix form to this point, was great also. With the ink still drying on their deal with Atlantic and a legion of devoted young folks already worshipping their every move, the future is bright for this lot and you better believe we’ll be hearing a lot from them in the coming months.
MP3s:
“That Boy That Girl” - Hadouken! ((highly recommended))
“Liquid Lives” - Hadouken!
Despite the lofty praise I just doled out for the live show and recorded material, I actually think their best work to date has come in the form of the unofficial remixes they’ve put out over the last year. While their synth-heavy updates to Bloc Party’s “The Prayer” and Plan B’s “No More Eatin’” were great in their own right, it’s the first remix they ever released, of Klaxons’ “Atlantis To Interzone”, that stands out as one of my single favorite remixes of the last two years. It’s just. So. Good. So yeah, feel free to get at those below. You won’t regret it.
MP3s:
“Atlantis To Interzone” (Hadouken! Remix) - Klaxons ((highly recommended))
“The Prayer” (Hadouken! Remix) - Bloc Party
“No More Eatin’” (Hadouken! Remix) - Plan B
But the best thing Hadouken have spawned to this point has to be Bob Harlow’s brilliant music video for “That Boy That Girl”, which serves as a perfect introduction to the band and a crash course in how to make one of the best videos of the year on a shoestring budget. In fact, to call it shoestring isn’t even doing it justice - if the rumors are to be believed Harlow put this out on a basically non-existent budget of £40, which qualifies the clip as one of the best low-budget videos I’ve ever seen. Don’t miss this one.
Video: “That Boy That Girl ” - Hadouken
Director: Bob Harlow
Watch: [YouTube]
Download: [Quicktime • 37 MB]
June 10th, 2007 at 4:50 pm
This resulted in an extremely good laugh out loud. Well played.
“I’m not sure if new rave really exists or not at this point, but assuming it does, you won’t find anything more new rave than Hadouken!, with the possible exception of London’s 2012 Olympics logo.”
June 10th, 2007 at 10:00 pm
At first, Hadouken’s remix of The Prayer annoyed me to no end, but for some reason I went back to it on my iPod one day, listened to it on repeat over and over again, and…. I started to like it. Don’t know how it happened, but it did. It’s a pretty good mix, I guess I started to appreciate some of the more clever lines.
June 11th, 2007 at 3:36 am
am i the only one who doesn’t like the visual style of this new-rave-neon-trash-genre?
and yes, the london 2012 spot made me think of this as well
June 11th, 2007 at 3:45 am
The female synth player is the older sister of one of my friends in my school.
Talk about knowing the genre.
June 11th, 2007 at 4:09 am
“I’ll take a venue full of drunk-ass teenagers flipping their shit for a band over a room full of NYC’s cooler-than-thou hipsters any day.”
That encapsulates my experience with London precisely. I was consistently surprised (until I kind of got used to it) by how young the crowds at gigs were in London, but when I was chatting with people between sets it was still weird to find out they were mostly 16-19.
For some reason Koko seems to attrack gigs that turn into absolute, massive mosh dance stomps and that’s what makes it such a great place. That, and the fact that you get offered drugs your entire walk from the tube to the venue.
I’m way behind on your blog so I don’t know what you’re doing in London but it’s gig scene is nearly second to none (perhaps second only behind New York) so I’m sure you’ll have a great time.
And god, I fucking love Hadouken! If indeed New Rave is becoming a genre, I can’t get enough of it.
June 11th, 2007 at 4:48 am
Damn, of course! The olympics wizards are trying to appeal to the crazy new-rave kids with their logo, I didn’t get it before but now it makes perfect sense.
And I just remembered I’m going to see Hadouken! tomorrow. Cool, haha, should be a brutal show.
June 11th, 2007 at 5:43 am
I like them well enough. I prefer their song “Tuning In”. Classic.
June 11th, 2007 at 7:31 am
look, im a fan of your blog and read every new entry with all my attention (your even my home page), but i honestly got to say wtf are you talking about in this one!
Nothing against Hadouken!, im a big fan just like anyone else, but a ‘disappointing’ set from Late of the Pier’ fuck off, they were immence, even with the couple of sound glitches.
You want disappointing, refer to We Smoke Fags, the most talentless pricks ive ever seen! (and wtf the majority of their music played from a laptop!)
DJ Mickey Four - i.e. play every commercial indie/ electro song going including that fucking skins song from the gossip. He was nothing special ok.
I will admit it was funny watching the bouncer get more and more pissed off at getting drinks thrown at him - priceless.
June 11th, 2007 at 9:41 am
I found Late of the Pier’s performance to be decent at best and I was really looking forward to hearing them live. Thus, I was dissappointed. MY BAD. I was their with two representatives from Atlantic, Hadouken’s lawyer and their manager, and the consensus was all pretty much the same.
And I got their after We Smoke Fags, so I cannot attest to their lack of talent and/or prickishness.
June 11th, 2007 at 11:51 am
So….are you Hadouken’s publicist or something Derek?
June 11th, 2007 at 11:52 am
Got to agree (as usual!) So far Hadouken! hav been better at remixing than actually producing fresh material. Thsi band do seem to have sepearted the indie community in two. They’re definately one of those bands u either love or hate, there seems to be no middle ground with them.
They’ve just released a free mixtape which can be downloaded HERE
June 11th, 2007 at 5:03 pm
““Tuning In”, a track only available in remix form to this point, was great also”
Tuning in was the B-side to That Boy That Girl and wasn’t in remix form.
June 11th, 2007 at 5:20 pm
oh my life, finally some hype on hadouken! im one of those kids who worships their every move! i wish they would release an album already! i need those synths and new rave energy, mmm, hadouken!
June 11th, 2007 at 6:21 pm
To be fair this site has been bigging up Hadouken for quite a while. Justifiably too… this is great.
June 11th, 2007 at 7:24 pm
Something about them makes me decidedly sick.
as does the 2012 Olympics logo.
June 11th, 2007 at 8:19 pm
Can’t agree more with you on the 2012 logo bit. First thing i thought when i saw it was “hey haven’t i seen that on Hadouken’s myspace”
June 12th, 2007 at 3:15 am
I saw hadouken at the ULU a few hours before, and yes they are amazing.
my review
& the mixtape is awesome, a bit glitchy in places but otherwise a really sound mix.
June 12th, 2007 at 4:25 am
KOKO gig was brilliant, I fully agree with your view. Late of the Pier were a bit of a let down, Hadouken! blew me away yet again. We Smoke Fags were really good too. And people go to Club NME and similar nights to hear the sort of music they hear on XFM daily. If you don’t want to hear that, then don’t go.
June 12th, 2007 at 5:24 am
The 2012 logo will be the death of “nu rave”.
Once the old men in suits are “down with the kids”, the kids move on.
I feel sorry for Hadouken’s label.
Or as Chris Rock once said: “In the music business, it’s here today, gone today”.
June 12th, 2007 at 7:57 am
Whenever I’ve seen Late of the Pier they were pretty good, so it’s a shame they didn’t do too well at Koko.
That Olympics logo comes of listening to too much Klaxons.
June 12th, 2007 at 2:58 pm
having grown up in london, i find the gigs with the most life in them are the ones that are advertised as over 18, but arent strict on the door. koko tends to be quite tough tho, especially after they changed the licensing laws. on the subject of hadouken, i saw them with adventure playground in october after i got denied on the door for klaxons at koko, and even tho they had maybe 10 songs to their name at the time, they were really good.
June 12th, 2007 at 6:33 pm
I just got back from the gig in Birmingham, there wasn’t a kid in there going absolutely mental, from the start when Does It Offend You, Yeah? went on to the end when people were crowd surfing at least 10 minutes after the show had ended.
Highlights include the mosh pit for We Are Rockstars and the people absolutely buzzing off the band and the beat from Does It Offend You, and pretty much the entire room jumping during songs like Tuning In, Liquid Lives and That Boy, That Girl.
In a word, immense.
June 13th, 2007 at 5:26 pm
Nice review, although I’m still undecided on the new version of Liquid Lives.
Good observation on the 2012 logo, I had thought the same thing - everything seems to be going new-rave at the moment: Top Shop, the Olympics, Big Brother. It will inevitably back fire, but we can enjoy it (?) whilst it lasts.
Also I’m mega smiley due to seeing the H! guitarist wearing a Reuben t-shirt, they are a top UK band that deserve some exposure. However, their popularity with the new-rave crowd is doubtful I imagine.
June 13th, 2007 at 6:50 pm
You really should know this,
but incase you didn’t :
the klaxons invented the phrase “new-rave” as a joke
It then got hyped up by NME
klaxons are now trying to stop people using the term “new-rave”
Personally I think most “new rave” is either dance music (IE van she, south central) pop (IE NYPC, the presets) or just indie (IE shitdisco, the sunshine underground)
AND FINALLY
+most relevent
Hadouken! are not “new-rave”
they describe themselves and are described as “Grindie” because they’re a cross between grime and indie.
Thanks for the post though
Interestin’ stuff (:
June 14th, 2007 at 10:55 am
im not arguing with your points bu i dont like the term ‘grindie’.
it will back fire just like new-rave.
June 14th, 2007 at 5:21 pm
Nu-rave?
Grindie!?
Are you fucking kidding me?
Props to Hadouken! for figuring out that GRIME is more “cutting edge” when presented by Cheap Monday wearing, Bloc Party remixing white kids.
June 16th, 2007 at 9:52 am
only just come across this band some ace tunes! anyone got a download link for the album, email me joe1dunne@gmail.com. much appreciated…
June 19th, 2007 at 12:15 pm
hadouken so are new rave
their myspace page doesnt call them new rave because thats not a genre available on myspace
personally i don’t see why race should really factor into any argument about how good a band are. nobody goes apeshit racist on kele - ZOMG BLACK GUY IN INDIE BAND!
June 19th, 2007 at 12:23 pm
oh and the album isnt out til september - at least thats what they said at their ULU gig
June 20th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
does it matter whether it’s grinde, new rave or whatever
listen to music becuase it’s good, or you like it, not cos some label someones given it
June 20th, 2007 at 3:59 pm
Here, here, I’m probably twice as old as the people at the gig but they sound good, go see them, yes..
September 16th, 2007 at 4:16 am
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September 16th, 2007 at 6:59 am
[…] GWFAS dishes out some Hadouken! coverage. […]
October 9th, 2007 at 12:14 pm
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