Klaxons have walked a rather unpredictable path since releasing 2007’s Myths of The Near Future. Initial recording sessions for a follow-up to their Nationwide Mercury Prize-winning debut with Simian Mobile Disco’s James Ford, bore little fruit. What’s more, label Polydor told the band that the recordings were too “experimental” for their liking. After a brief flirtation with Tony Visconti, the former nu-rave figureheads found salvation in the unlikely form of Ross Robinson. Dubbed ‘The Godfather of nu-metal’, Robinson has previously helmed records by Korn and Limp Bizkit.
Incongruous as the collaboration may sound, it works. At times Surfing The Void is scrappy and punk-rock jagged, the frenetic energy of At The Drive-In – another act Robinson has worked with – present on the title-track and ‘Flashover’. However, it’s when they embrace melody, as on first single ‘Echoes’ and album centerpiece ‘Venusia’, that Klaxons truly bewitch. The latter is a highlight, twinkling keyboard melody operating in blissful tandem with quavering vocals. Elsewhere, the likes of ‘Valley Of The Calm Trees’ and ‘Extra Astronomical’ – science-fiction themed songs driven by a strong psychedelic pulse – could score one of Philip K. Dick’s senses-blasting novels.
These are songs possessed by a sense of cosmic wonderment, with Klaxons holding forth about the universal oneness of mankind (‘The Same Space’) and the elasticity of time (‘Future Memories’). The overriding impression is of musical horizons being broadened and minds expanded – perhaps a result of the band’s well-documented dabbling with the psychotropic brew ayahuasca. In short, Surfing The Void is – like the stimulants that fueled its creation – powerful stuff.