Klaxons were an indie rock band, based in London. The band consisted of Jam… Read Full Bio ↴Klaxons were an indie rock band, based in London. The band consisted of Jamie Reynolds (bass, vocals), James Righton (keyboards, vocals), Simon Taylor-Davies (guitar) and Steffan Halperin (drums). They have been on indefinite hiatus since 2014.

Reynolds, Righton and Taylor-Davies formed the band in New Cross, London, United Kingdom, in 2005 Their debut single, "Gravity's Rainbow" was released on 29 March 2006 as a 500 copies limited 7-inch vinyl, decorated by the band themselves. Their first first EP, Xan Valleys, was released on 16 October 2006, and contained their first two singles alongside some remixes.

Following the release of numerous 7-inch singles on different independent record labels, as well as the success of previous singles "Magick" and "Golden Skans", the band released their debut album, Myths of the Near Future on 29 January 2007. The album won the 2007 Nationwide Mercury Prize.

After headlining their first tour (the 2007 NME Indie Rave Tour), as well as playing numerous festivals and headlining tours worldwide, the band started working on their follow-up album in October 2007.

HMV describes Klaxons as "acid-rave sci-fi punk-funk", a phrase lifted directly from Tim Chester's Radar feature in NME, while their MySpace page touts 'Psychedelic / Progressive / Pop'. However, they are one of the isolated acts being referred to as 'Nu Rave', a genre term coined by Angular Records founder Joe Daniel, who released the trio's first single. Though the band's sound is decidedly art rock, they draw upon some less common influences - notably the rave culture of the 1990s, which they appropriate and redefine in a post-modern fashion. Their influences are perhaps most represented in their covers of rave hits "The Bouncer" by Kicks Like a Mule and "Not Over Yet" by Grace. Both tracks have since been released by the band, the first as part of a double a-side with "Gravity's Rainbow" in March 2006 and the latter as a single on June 25, 2007 titled "It's Not Over Yet".

While the band are consistently hailed as the defining act of the sparsely-populated Nu Rave movement, Klaxons have worked to avoid being typecast as champions of the disputed genre that may or may not exist. Indeed, it is questionable whether or not the style referred to as "New Rave" is even appreciably different from the older genre dance-punk. Even so, Klaxons member Jamie Reynolds expressed no regrets at the dubious honor, saying that "...it's great that it started as an in-joke and became a minor youth subculture"

Klaxons recorded a song All Rights Reversed with Chemical Brothers on their album We Are The Night(2007).

Four Horsemen of 2012
Klaxons Lyrics

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There's a half man, half horse that still pollutes my thoughts
As he rides on a flame in the sky
He comes through the centuries with me on his entries
The kids and the cats watch him fly

Please catch that half horse as he murders my thoughts
With fragments of flames anyway
Half man, half horse that still pollutes my thoughts

As he rides on a flame in the sky

Four horse men
Twenty [Incomprehensible]

There's a half man, half horse that still pollutes my thoughts
As he rides on a flame in the sky
He comes through the centuries with me on his entries
The kids and the cats watch him fly

Please catch that half horse as he murders my thoughts
With fragments of flames anyway
Half man, half horse that still pollutes my thoughts
As he rides on a flame in the sky

Four horse men
Twenty [Incomprehensible]

Overall Meaning

In Klaxons’s song “Four Horsemen of 2012,” the lyrics describe the unsettling image of a half man, half horse riding on a flame in the sky. This image appears to be a recurring thought or nightmare haunting the singer’s mind, as the creature continues to “pollute” their thoughts. Despite its terrifying presence, the creature seems to hold a sort of fascination for the “kids and the cats” who watch it fly through the centuries along with the singer.

The lyrics suggest that this half man, half horse is somehow connected to the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, which are a symbol of the end times in Christianity. The repeated refrain of “Four horsemen / Twenty incomprehensible” may be a reference to the Book of Revelation, which describes the four horsemen riding out at the end of the world. The imagery of the half man, half horse may represent one of the horsemen, such as Death or Pestilence.

Overall, the lyrics paint a vivid and disturbing picture of impending doom and the way our fears can haunt us. The half man, half horse on a flame in the sky is both captivating and terrifying, a symbol of the end of all things and the unknown forces that shape our lives.

Line by Line Meaning

There's a half man, half horse that still pollutes my thoughts
I can't shake this disturbing image of a creature that has the body of a man and the legs of a horse from my mind and it's affecting me

As he rides on a flame in the sky
The image is even more unsettling because this creature is flying through the sky on a flaming object

He comes through the centuries with me on his entries
This is an ongoing problem that has plagued me for centuries

The kids and the cats watch him fly
Even the innocent, carefree creatures like children and cats are aware of this disturbing image and it's affecting us all

Please catch that half horse as he murders my thoughts
I desperately need to get rid of this image as it's causing me mental harm

With fragments of flames anyway
The image is so vivid that even just fragments of it are still burning in my mind

Four horse men
This might be a reference to biblical imagery, specifically the four horsemen of the apocalypse

Twenty [Incomprehensible]
This line is incomprehensible and its meaning cannot be determined

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: JAMES NICHOLAS RIGHTON, JAMIE OLIVER JACK REYNOLDS, SIMON LEE CAMPBELL TAYLOR-DAVIES

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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