A fair few years ago now, circa 2006/7, in my early to mid teens and observing a wave of electronic music dubbed by the press as 'Nu Rave', was when I first encountered Hadouken!.
Finding themselves lumped in a fickle sub-genre with fellow bands such as CSS, MGMT and Klaxons - all of which, may I add, have incredibly little in common, and reinforcing the irrelevant desire of music press to needlessly generalise music for hype - Hadouken! appealed to my juvenile ears.
In hindsight, back then, Hadouken! were a somewhat artless band, subsisting on whoops, beeps and videogame noises, overlaid with sarcastic, often witty yet often - dare I say it - juvenile raps, and subsequently celebrated by teens in neon brandishing glo-sticks.
Flashforward to the present and you will find that Hadouken! have matured. Their second album, For the Masses, was an awkward blip between Music for an Accelerated Culture and their as yet unannounced forthcoming album, which will hopefully be a more streamlined affair.
Following singles 'Mecha Love', 'Oxygen' and 'Parasite', 'Bad Signal' samples classic Supremes' track, 'You Keep Me Hanging On', layering it over Nero-esque dubstep and frontman, James Smith's raps about a tricky relationship, surprisingly complimenting in a way that doesn't sound too good on paper.
As Hadouken! progress, they may be losing what it was that originally made them fresh and exciting when they first burst onto the Nu Rave scene, however, if they continue to make brilliant, yet nameless and faceless club tracks such as these and the post For the Masses singles, I most certainly won't be complaining!
'Bad Signal' is released on 5th August
http://hadouken.com/
http://www.facebook.com/hadoukentheband
http://soundcloud.com/hadouken
https://twitter.com/#!/HadoukenUK
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