I have been meaning to start up Lotty Tries again for quite some time and an unexpected listen of an album has inspired me to write this piece. For those who are new or need a refresher, Lotty Tries is a series of posts where I listen to an album by an artist I know little to nothing about and give my thoughts on said album and artist. These albums are also outside the rock and metal sphere as it’s great to mix things up.
The album in question for today’s piece HADOUKEN!’s debut album Music For An Accelerated Culture. I first came across the band when my Moving Image tutor showed us an example of cut out animation, this was in the form of HADOUKEN!’s music video for That Boy That Girl. I really enjoyed the song and the video but didn’t think to listen to the album, this was during time when streaming services like Spotify weren’t so readily available so buying albums by bands you had no idea about was a huge gamble.
Fast forward to today and I decided to listen to the song again to revive some nostalgia on Spotify. The rest of the album started to play and I found myself enjoying the catchy, dancy melodies this new rave/grindie band had to offer up. As usual; before I give my final thoughts on the album, I would like to delve into my personal favourite tracks.
The bouncy rhythm in Mr Misfortune alone was enough to sell me onto what this track offered up, it was impossible to sit still during this track. The catchy melody will be swimming around in your head for days after the listen.
The bombastic intro in What She Did made my ears perk up almost instantly, it wouldn’t be out of a place in a sci-fi film or TV series. For the rest of the track, imagine if ARCTIC MONKEYS and THE PRODIGY had a love child, What She Did would give you a rough idea on what that would sound like.
The track Spend Your Life sounded very familiar, particular the synth melodies. Either way, the melody of this track wouldn’t be out of place in a video game and I am living for it. Given HADOUKEN is named after a special attack in the Street Fighter video game series, it would be odd if there weren’t some video game likeness in this band’s sound.
In my teenage years before delving into the deeper side of heavy metal, I listened to a lot of these indie rock bands so listening to this album brought back a lot of nostalgia. It was great to hear these sorts of tracks with a heavy tinge of dance music to it. Also any influence from video games or anything remotely nerdy gets a huge thumbs up from yours truly.
What albums would you like me to blind review? Let me know in the comments below.
