NEW RAVE. I had to say it. I hate that I have to say it and I hate that I have to hate saying it, but just about everything to do with the hype and the inevitable backlash (check out everything else written about the band on this very site) surrounding the Klaxons is tied up in this misleading moniker. I even try to avoid bringing it up as I speak to Klaxons lead singer/keyboardist James Righton via telephone from Berlin, but the 23 year old has no qualms about addressing the issue himself:

JR: The NME has been really good to us, supporting us from day one. If it weren't for them, we probably wouldn't be here. And they can take that away just as fast. Or if, you know, they don't support you; it's an uphill climb. And the whole New Rave thing�?�

CU: I was trying to figure out if I should even bring that up�?�

JR: (Laughs) Yeah! I mean, it's a joke, you know? It's something we just made up, and it sort of took off. We're not a rave band.

CU: But you guys aren't shunning the title or anything?

JR: No, we're not. You know, we made it up 16 months ago, and it's just snowballed. It's funny to us. Everyone is just looking for a label to put on everything, and it's all fleeting.

It's obvious that Righton has no delusions about the fickleness with which the British media make and break their popstars, the NME indiscriminately launching well-quaffed and semi-talented guitar bands with a gimmick on a bi-weekly basis only for most to come thudding back to Blighty's cobbled streets by the release of their next single. The Klaxons, though a group only a year and a half in existence, have already broken this mold, and seem more than likely to outlive the genre they bear flag for, even if, for the moment, the tag still hangs. "We don't really get a chance to go out and party anymore when we're in London," Righton deadpans, "We're always too busy, you know, talking to somebody about new rave."

Despite my earlier attempts to avoid it, he R-word has quickly become the theme of the interview, though not without leading to some interesting tangents. At the suggestion that the Klaxons - in littering their songs with references to Burroughs and Pynchon, Mayan apocalyptic predictions, and mystic predications - are too literate to be called "rave," Righton balks; "Well, I mean, that's not to say there aren't some intelligent electronic artists or producers. The whole literate thing is just to do with where we decide to steal our influences from. It's all a matter of taking pieces from different things and sticking them together; taking different elements and trying to build on that. We're not doing anything new."

I ask Righton for his views are on what is arguably the fullest extension of his "stealing influences" theory, that being the somewhat recent explosion in laptop mash-up/remix engineers. "In a way, [it's] exciting," he answers, "Anyone can do it now. Not many of them do it well, but there are people like Erol Alkan, and James (Ford - Myths of the Near Future producer) who do do it really well. Erol's version of "Golden Skans" is one of my favorite remixes anyone's done of one of our songs."

The mention of Erol Alkan gets me thinking about what it is exactly that has made the Klaxons and new rave so appealing to kids on both sides of the Atlantic. The album is good - deceptively diverse, well-written, sexy - but it seems that the addition of the "rave" designation has provided people with a sense of excitement about the band, acting as an incite to party in a way seldom seen at indie rock shows.

Alkan, more or less unknown on this continent, has been fucking with the traditional club night balance in London for more than a decade, his legendary "Trash" Monday nights (RIP) effectively eliminating the lines between dj set/dance party/live show, instead seeming to group them all together under one banner (read: PARTY). "We grew up going to Trash, you know? It was a really big part of our lives" it was an institution, Righton explains, and one can't help but appreciate the influence those formative years seem to have had on the band's music.

So, now, you're 23, you've "invented" a genre, had an album debut at #2 on the UK album charts, and are touring the world getting wasted with your friends. Where does it go from here? What do you do next? What musical avenues do you pursue?

"We're actually sort of moving towards prog rock. Just moving towards a bigger and darker sound. I mean, who knows where it will end up when we're through recording and whatever, but that's what we're moving towards right now. It's all about killing off the genres from before. Brit-pop came back and was killed off, stadium rock, and now we're killing off rave. And maybe after that we'll kill off prog. We'll see."

Somehow, this doesn't strike me as strange. The pieces are already more or less in place. If the Klaxons can make people forget about Rush the way they made people forget about Orbital, then onward with the genrecide.