Klaxons – Surfing The Void

How to follow up a genre-defining, Mercury Prize-winning debut LP? Well, in the eyes of the prototype nu-ravers it seems to involve spending three years listening to Slipknot, signing up their erstwhile producer Ross Robinson and going all nu rave cum psych-metal on our asses. Sounds awful? Actually, not at all. Out go (to a certain extent) the soaring keyboards, replaced with pounding rhythm and some mean guitar licks. Yet, with the emphasis as ever on high-octane entertainment it remains unmistakeably Klaxons.

First single Flashover has arrived to mixed reviews, but this schizophrenic space shanty, along with opener Echoes, Venusha and the title track are a heady salvo of rocked out trippy fun. Surfing the Void is likely to prove light on durable anthems (Echoes is perhaps the closest contender) such as Atlantis To Interzone, but the beefed up production and loyalty to hedonism mean every cut here is infinitely more palatable than the incredibly annoying Golden Skans. [Wilbur Kane]