NEW HADOUKEN!

OMG YAY Hadouken have a new track - It's called Love Sweat and Tears. They've lso announced a second mixtape to be released on the 12th of November. From what I've heard, this is going to be released in the format of a USB memory stick, which to be honest seems like the most ridiculous musical format ever thought up. It's NOT their album, apparently, titled 'Not Here To Please You' it's got a load of material already doing the rounds as well as some new stuff. Tracklisting as follows:

Leap Of Faith
Bounce
Girls
Love, Sweat & Beer
Dance Lesson
You Can't Be That
Liquid Lives (Noisia Remix)
Tuning In (H! Rerub)
Bloc Party Vs Hadouken! Remix
Plan B Vs Hadouken! Remix
Bolt Action 5 Vs Hadouken! Remix

The as-of-yet untitled album won't be out til early next year. I'll eat my glowsticks if isn't a mercury nominee. The UK tour starts next friday with support alternating between Shut Your Eyes and The Ghost Frequency, and Late Of The Pier and The Whip.

DOWNLOAD: Hadouken! - Love, Sweat And Beer

I could never be a drummer; I'd throw up.

Saw Cajun Dance Party on Saturday. I will not lie, it was very very amazingly good fun. I squeezed right to the front, close enough for, if I'd wanted, I could have ripped all the cords out of the keyboard CDP's resident pianist Vicky was playing.Towards the end of the night the singer was stage-diving, the guitars had about 2 strings still working and the crowd had managed to somehow crowd-surf the singer Danny's microphone stand all the way back to the auditorium.
It was the first night of Cajun Dance Party's UK tour. It was a pretty good start. The support acts were an icelandic band called Jakobinarina (pronounced "yack-oh-been-a-reen-a"), and a guy singing ballads on a piano. The poster said it was Jakobinarina and Tinseltown supporting, but after checking out tinseltown on MySpace, it turns out it wasn't. Whoever he was, he was good; and he handed out FREE shirts after his set. They were these off-white fairtrade organic cotton shirts (WHY ARE THE ECO FRIENDLY T-SHIRTS NEVER WHITE? MY HADOUKEN SHIRT IS ALSO ALL YELLOWY!) with "NICE GUYS DON'T PLAY GOOD MUSIC" hand-sprayed onto them. I managed to get a girls extra small size, and i am pretty sure it is roughly the same size as any t-shirt that my four-year-old brother might wear. Ah well, I can just tell everyone that it is the style to wear childrens' clothes. Or girls' clothes.

I can't remember tracklisting perfectly, but the finale was The Next Untouchable, soon to be Cajun's new single. It was an awesome gig, buy their single off iTunes, it's amazing.

DOWNLOAD: Cajun Dance Party - The Next Untouchable

I have a recurring dream in which I manage to single-handedly start some kind of illegal underground warehouse rave club scene in my middle-class suburban town just outside the M25. It's not going to happen, but every time I put on Pirate Soundsystem's Headspin Remix of Hadouken!'s 'Liquid Lives', there it appears. One word for this track: WAREHOUSE.
It's not music in the music sense of the word - I will actually eat my own hat if this EVER (even in like a hundred years) comes up on Desert Island Discs - but it's one hell of a dancehall-oriented track, and the bassline SCREAMS neon.

DOWNLOAD: Hadouken! - Liquid Lives (Pirate Soundsystem Headspin Remix)

And now, Regina Spektor. She's finally coming to London, so me, Wil and Jane are going down to see her at the Royal Festival Hall. Except, annoyingly, Kate Nash has decided to schedule the ONLY London date of her UK tour that very day, and somebody's offered me a free ticket. RARGH. The scheduled time of both shows are EXACTLY the same, and I've already paid for Regina Spektor. The decision was tough, but I'm going to Regina, seeing as this is her World Tour and she probably won't be in London again for at least a year. But argh, it's still really irritating.
Although, on the upside, as remarked by my sister after she heard Habanera, the B-side to Kate's Number 2 smash Foundations, Kate Nash is starting to sound more and more like Regina.
Habanera is a masterpiece. It's a little bit too arthouse to ever get the mainstream recognition of Foundations, but it's a solid tune. It builds up from Kate just singing some high-pitched dadadadaaas over a deep piano riff, in comes some drums and some lyrics. The real artistic bit is in the random noises that build up over the course of the song. There's a match being lit, coins being dropped and glasses being tapped. Or something like that.

DOWNLOAD:Regina Spektor - Wasteside

DOWNLOAD: Kate Nash - Habanera

Bolt The Dizzee Hadouken Fox Party

OK I'm sorry this is turning into a blog that seems entirely dedicated to Hadouken, but I just had to do a write-up of their excellent (and I mean excellent) mixtape. Sampling all of early 2007's best banger's, this is really one for the scene kids. It's got Caroline's a Victim, Ready To Uff, TWO Klaxons rework's (major kudos on the Golden Skans snippet) and they're even remixing their own tracks. IT IS AMAZING. The available artwork only gives the sampled artist's names and not the songs, and some of the tracks I honestly cannot be bothered to research but it tracklisting is roughly as follows:

Bloc Party vs Hadouken! - The Prayer Remix
Like Woah! - (DON'T KNOW)
David E Sugar Feat Ears - (DON'T KNOW)
Wiley - (DON'T KNOW)
Plan B vs Hadouken! - No More Eating Remix
Virus Syndicate
TNT - (DON'T KNOW)
Skepta Feat Wiley, JME, Creed - (DON'T KNOW)
Klaxons vs Hadouken! - Atlantis To Interzone Remix
Bolt Action Five - Tree Friend Tree Foe
Hadouken! - Tuning In
Uffie - Ready To Uff
Kate Nash - Caroline's A Victim
Mr Oizo - (DON'T KNOW - I REALLY SHOULD KNOW)
Klaxons - Golden Skans
Justice - Phantom
Fox N Wolf - Youth Alcoholic
Radioclit - (DON'T KNOW)
Gossip - Standing In The Way Of Control
Test Icicles - (DON'T KNOW)
Jixilix - (DON'T KNOW)

Get the whole mixtape @ http://www.myfreedownload.co.uk/hadoukenmixtape

Overall the mixtape is really really good. Personally I reckon some of the rap/grimey bits at the beginning go on a bit too long + Maybe they coulda done something a bit more interesting with Caroline's A Victim. I particularly like the way they've really subtly messed with the bassline from Standing In The Way Of Control, although it actually makes me wince so much when i hear people refer to Beth Ditto & Co's three and a half minute frenzied protest track as 'The Skins Song'. Eurghhhhh.

My favourite bit of the track has to be Bolt Action Five's Tree Friend Tree Foe. I hadn't heard of this band before but I am officially in love with them. I have no idea what they are talking about with friends and foes and trees but it makes an excellent track. The Cleft Pallettes have an amazing remix of it, all glitchy synths and super mario drumbeats.
DOWNLOAD: Bolt Action Five - Tree Friend Tree Foe (Cleft Palettes Remix)

In fact, the Cleft Pallettes have some really awesome remixes, especially their edit of the Teenager's Homecoming, in which they manage to laugh at just about everything to do with the Myspace generation of 2007. Get them off their Myspace. I'm also grateful for the screechy Youth Alcoholic bit. It's like the horrible third verse of the Timewarp, except really really good. I do have first-hand anecdotal evidence it will make your pets go temporarily insane. There's a wicked "hungover booty crunk" remix of it available HERE from Discobelle.net

In other news, Cajun Dance Party have just started their UK tour. I'm hoping to catch them at the Bedford Esquires in a few Saturdays' time, and they've just made their 2006 demo EP available free from their website. If you haven't heard Cajun Dance Party yet I seriously suggest you check them out. CAJUN FREE DEMOS
&&&& I have FINALLY managed to get my hands on the Dizzee Rascal album. I'd be lying if I said it's all good - track number 1 is especially crap, the hightlight is where Dizzee coughs at around the 2 minute 40 mark - but there are some awesome tunes. Sirens, his ode to 'goin out n robbin stuff', if you ignore the fact it includes actual sirens, is a wicked banger. Listen to the heavy guitar riffs that sound like they're stolen out an old White Stripes album, and the catchy-as-anything chorus: it's impossible not to be hooked.
DOWNLOAD: Dizzee Rascal - Sirens

Hadouken! Live At The ULU

After the short train journey from St Albans to Kings Cross and the 20 minute walk to the ULU, we arrived to see a crowd of new-rave teenagers, and what struck me was how young the crowd were. Me and my friends (aged 15) had expected to be among the youngest people there, especially considering it was at a student union. We were literally amazed by what everyone was wearing. Skinny jeans in colours usually reserved for highlighter pens, girls with blue knee-length hair extensions, boys with flat top caps balanced on hair so backcombed they looked like bird’s nests – it was insane. Just about every girl in a skirt was also wearing leggings – we thought one girl was wearing silver (silver?) leggings, but she explained to us she’d actually just spray-painted her legs silver. Everyone had their glowsticks and plastic sunglasses – which loads of people insisted on wearing the WHOLE NIGHT – and we were just about the only people without H! scrawled all over our clothes. It was mad. We arrived at seven O’clock and the queue already had about a hundred people in it and the time was about ten to eight when we finally entered the venue.

The stage was empty and there was a huge banner with the distinctive Hadouken! logo scrawled across it. There was some generic bassy rap music playing and the crowd was gradually amassing at the front. A few bald blokes with moustaches were adjusting the equipment and there were about 5 bouncers in orange polo shirts looking less than amused at the restless crowd. The guns, bitches and bling faded out; the soundcheck men cleared off, and after about 30 seconds of nothing but noisy chatter we were greeted with the slightly out-of-place ‘Close To You’, as sung by The Carpenters, blaring out the speakers. Running onto the stage was Example, a “white rapper from Fulham” possibly best known for his bootleg answerback track to Lily Allen's 'Smile' – called ‘Vile’. He urged the crowd to ‘get their glowsticks in the air’ and most of the first verse was just one huge swaying singalong, but eventually it evolved into a foot-stamping rap anthem. Somehow. I was really thrilled Example was playing; I knew he’d done some support on Hadouken!’s tour, but he wasn’t billed for the ULU gig so I thought it would just be his night off or something. I had no idea how good a live performer Example was. Heavy on sampling and audience participation, for example one song had a chorus that was made up getting the crowd to shout, “BOUNCE! BOUNCE! BOUNCE!” over the bridge to The Rolling Stones’ ‘Paint it Black’, or Britney Spears’ ‘Toxic’ used to describe his smoker girlfriend’s breath. We heard an exclusive preview of new single ‘I Don’t Want To’, which (if I’m honest) I can’t actually remember all that well but it was really good. He finished with a rendition of ‘You Can’t Rap’, a song which, I believe, is worthy of the title of Best Rap Song Ever To Feature An Opera Singer. Ever.

After a much-needed water-break, Does This Offend You, Yeah? Took the stage. Having heard mp3s off their MySpace, where they only have a load of cartoon pictures, I was expecting two blokes on decks or something and maybe a drummer. But what we got was a four-piece complete with guitarist and a bassist/keyboardist. And a guy on decks thrown in for good measure. After making a hugely painful horrible guitar screaming noise, the lead singer grabbed the mic and said, in the epitome of cool, “Does This O-Fuckin-Fend You, Yeah?” and they launched into their first song. I have no idea what it was, but GOD, it was crap. After that tirade was over, they were on form with the excellent Battle Royale. It was here that the sweaty pogo-ing rave saw it’s first bit of aggressive ‘mosh’ action. Mainly due to my mate Alex trying to get in front of some hench teenager who was about a foot taller than him, the crowd started literally falling over itself and pushing and swaying and suchlike. And the girls in the crowd were LOVING it. Literally. Not wanting to appear as some sort of chauvinist/sexist stereotypist, but the girls around the bit of stage I was at were violent. I was punched, scratched and squashed and the particularly sadistic ones were the girls. The weird thing was, I honestly did not feel an ounce of pain. I’m usually one of the kids with a low(er than most) pain threshold, but even when a girl in six-inch stilettos managed to scratch a deep (OK, not that deep) gash in my shin, the adrenaline rush was such that I felt literally NO PAIN. At all. Everything went crazy with their final track ‘We Are Rockstars’ which they dedicated to Headliners Hadouken!, despite one audience member’s shout that it should be dedicated to Jesus, and another one saying it should be dedicated to Joan Of Ark. People were crowdsurfing and punching and kicking and at one point this whole line of people at the front all pushed back at the same time, causing about 30 people a few rows back to land in one huge pileup. As a metaphor to help you understand sort of what it was like, here is a video for the song made by a fan for a video & media course she was doing.

Hadouken! finally came on, I was getting really overheated so I made the decision to pour a cup of water all over me. BAD IDEA. I was bloody freezing on the way home. Anyways, they opened with Bounce, which, judging by their YouTube channel, is pretty standard. The crowd were going mental & it was nice to see them also playing some new material I hadn’t heard, such as ‘Blood, Sweat and Beers’ and ‘Declaration Of War’ which was a personal favourite, as it was much more of a sing song, as opposed to a shout song. The show ended with That Boy That Girl, which neither the crowd nor the band really wanted to stop. James rapped the main verse from their rather fabulous Bloc Party Remix and the end chorus got repeated at least 3 times. It was actually a brilliant gig – go see Hadouken! now, while they’re still small. The Album drops in September, and is a must-buy. I can’t wait.

Hadouken!

Although the Klaxons get credit for 'inventing' the 'new rave' scene, pioneers of the genre (which may or may not exist, depending on who you ask) are Hadouken. Mixing grimey ravey indie electro rock, their new single is here at last. In the making-of video for their new (as of yet unreleased) video for latest single Liquid Lives, the guitarist explains the song is
"based on the whole allegory of emotions based around the drug that is alcohol."
Someone off camera adds, (I have no idea who, sorry)
"It's not a drug ... it's a drink."
A friend of mine ripped this off their Myspace, but as far as I know it's the final mix that will be available for download soon. If you've heard the old demo from Keep Hope Inside in January and liked it, have a listen to this; everything slightly crap about the old one has been resolved. I'm seeing Hadouken! at the ULU in june with Does This Offend You, Yeah? supporting. It's going to be fun. Have a look at their Myspace, there's usually at least one mp3 available for download. Coming soon will be the long-awaited Hadouken! remix of something by Forward Russia, and there has been rumours of an Enter Shikari remix. Now that would be interesting.

Download: Hadouken! - Liquid Lives

www.myspace.com/hadoukenuk -The Hadouken! Myspace
www.myspace.com/hadoukenremixes -The Hadouken! Remix Myspace
www.myspace.com/doesitoffendyou -Does It Offend You, Yeah? Myspace