Just in time for the release of their debut album, the Klaxons have distanced themselves from the term "new rave". It's just as well, for there's almost nothing on Myths of the Near Future that would suggest more than a passing familiarity with old rave. There are a few electronic sounds, less integrated into the music than taped on to it, and a heavy-handed cover of Grace's classic Not Over Yet, which drains it of its original blissful ecstasy.
For the most part, though, the album is a mess of clumsy beats that never settle into a groove, lurching shout-along chants more suited to the football stadium than the dancefloor and unpleasant-sounding, overdriven bass. The songs descend the same chords repeatedly and ponderously, as if the band were falling down the same flight of stairs over and over again.
Most unforgivably, there's the appalling production, with its curious emphasis on nasty, screaming treble. Stellar remixes from Simian Mobile Disco and Erol Alkan have shown that the Klaxons' music is redeemable - by removing all trace of the original. But, given the current creative fertility of house and techno music, indie chancers trying to pass this ropey stuff off as a dance revival is insulting and pointless.