Hadouken! - Not Here To Please You (Atlantic)
4/5
By: Yousif Nur
Still bitten by the dance-indie-urban crossover that is commonly known by esteemed pop-pickers as the new rave? Then fear not, as a brand new red-hot, spanked to hell USB album by Hadouken! brings some fresh sounds to all indie kids' bedrooms nationwide. The Leeds/London based indie-grime collective plead to the masses that they want to be taken seriously and have taken many precautions in avoidance of raised questions that could potentially arise. And while they are here, the release of a USB stick-only release is commendable by any logic, particularly if it proves the way to go in these oh so difficult to follow musical times.
To a great deal of scenesters, these tunes will resonate heavily in the eardrums as being omnipresent, given that they're as instantly recognisable from browsing in the aisles of HMV as they are from standing impassively replete with shades donned in a crowded club. It's fair to say that they're a hard lot to avoid, but their aforementioned omnipresence arises for the following reasons - music is for the masses, Hadouken! Fit the bill in the current state of play, and therefore Hadouken!'s music is demanded by the masses. That might be wildly inaccurate, banal or completely unsound, but hey, this is rock and roll and not science. And still, selling out the Astoria on the back of this - essentially a mix tape, let's not forget - doesn't lie.
As John Peel once said about The Fall, 'always different, always the same'. While admittedly on a much smaller scale, Hadouken! have forever the same dance-rave element with rapping-like vocals evoking grime influences with their fast, aggressive delivery. On the flipside, they have a different arrangement for everything they set out to do, but their subject matter seems to be pretty much a one track affair each time - social commentary on what it's like to be an 18-something spending your parents' hard-earned cash. Sounding familiar?
'Bounce' is a sinister sounding opener. Synths-a-plenty and their deft ability to mix the tunes well (bear in mind this is a compilation USB stick) both suit the track listing. They manage to fit a few of their originals in too, like the head-bopping 'Leap Of Faith' and Salt 'n Peppa aping 'Dance Lesson', with the lyrics, "don't try to act hard and act like a gangsta / You live with your mum and you work at ASDA' pretty much summing pu the sort of lyrical content you can come to expect from Not Here To Please You.
There are plenty of remixes to accompany the fully-fledged originals, provided by the likes of Bloc Party and Plan B, plus even time for an old school rave knees-up with Bolt Action Five offering their services to be inertly re-worked. Though Bloc Party have made a very, very questionable and split-down-the-middle second album, at least a remix of 'The Prayer' (which the original of, admittedly, is a good 'un) is at least listenable without grimaces, ugly expressions or thumb-downs.
By rights, the title of this compilation seems contradictory - one on hand, they're Not Here To Please You, but on the other the music produced suggests might do just that, for the time being at least. It's a surprisingly solid piece of workmanship, well worth spending your (parents'?) hard earned cash on.
Watch the video to 'Leap of Faith' from 'Not Here To Please You' HERE.
Artists in this article: Hadouken!
Your Feedback
Login to post your comment