News

Hadouken! Return

• 1st Sep 2009

Hadouken! return with a brand new EP on September 14 that cements their reputation as Britain’s most dynamic and forward-thinking young band.

Recorded in Holland with gilded Dutch electronic dance producers Noisia, the M.A.D EP is proof of further massive progression for the quintet who met in Leeds at university just three years ago. The EP evolves the cutting edge dance-rock sound unveiled on their UK number 12 debut album, 2008’s Music For An Accelerated Culture, by delivering tracks that are harder, louder, more rhythmic and tightly focused than anything they’ve attempted before, or than anything else on offer by their contemporaries. If an historic comparison was to be attempted, cast your mind far back to the earliest, comparatively sketchy works by the likes of the Prodigy or the Chemical Brothers. Then recall the impact when each delivered in turn Voodoo People and Block Rockin’ Beats. That’s the kind of leap forward successfully maneuvered here. Britain’s next great dance-rock band have arrived.

Lead track M.A.D (an acronym for Mutually Assured Destruction) is a booming, bass-heavy explosion that ponders the psychology of violence in the broadest sense. Musically, it’s a bold statement of intent, the perfect mix of state of the art rhythm, edge of your seat guitars, and bright-eyed, keen-witted howling at the moon. M.A.D will sound as powerful booming out in a rammed concert hall with 5000 of their rabidly loyal fans going bananas or rattling out from a Nokia phone on the back of a bus. Hadouken! don’t discriminate. They just want to invade ear and head-space.
There are also three remixes of M.A.D on the EP by Detboi, Phace and Plastician respectively, as well as two
more brand new tracks: Something Very BAD, which is exclusive to this EP, and a dub of Ugly, a track that will appear in a different form on the forthcoming, as yet untitled second album.

As anyone who witnessed the reception lavished on not just old favourites but also when new material such as M.A.D was recently road-tested in front of packed festival audiences at Exit, Optimus and Underage will testify, the stars are currently aligning for Hadouken!’s much-anticipated return. Buckle up.

“I feel like the stars are aligning for us right now,” says vocalist James Smith. “The Prodigy came back with a huge hit record this year. I’ve seen Chase and Status rise to the forefront, Pendulum too, and the whole dubstep scene. We’re cut from the same cloth as all that but I think we’re doing something really new and exciting with the M.A.D EP, as well as with the album that we’ve also recorded with Noisia. It’s a big, big progression. The time is right for us.”

Which all bodes well for the album, also recorded with Noisia, and due in early 2010. Prepare yourself for a thrilling new chapter.

Track list here:
1. M.A.D
2. Something Very Bad
3. Ugly (Dub Mix)
4. M.A.D (Detboi Remix)
5. M.A.D (Plastican Remix)
6. M.A.D (Phace Remix)

UK dates here:
September
12th – Cleethorpes Rocks Festival
22nd – Academy, Derby
23rd – Moho Live (16+), Manchester
25th – Liverpool Academy, Liverpool
26th – 53 Degreed (16+), Preston
27th – Waterfront, Norwich
29th – Forum (16+), Hertfordshire
30th – Stylus (14+), Leeds

October
3rd – Blockparty @ Custard Factory, Birmingham
4th – Foundry (14+), Sheffield