Mega. Audio. Dishwater.
Everyday we are exposed to a multitude of acronyms. From waking up in the morning we have GMTV (Good Morning Television), MTV (Music Television), VAT (Value Added Tax), GMT (Greenwich Mean Time), BLT (Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato)... ad infinitum. And now, courtesy of Hadouken! we have ‘MAD’. But despite standing for Mutually Assured Destruction, Mega Audio Dishwater may be a little more apt.
Whilst other dance-rock acts such as Pendulum and The Prodigy have rocketed skyward in terms of success in the past year, the lastest offering from Hadouken! seems a little lacking by comparison. Although big, bombastic and inherently gritty, it also seems to be too brash, too over produced and too over confident. A casual listener may even think that it is the work of some cock-sure, spotty, gangsta-fixated seventeen year old, made in his mum’s bedroom by the degree it reeks of presumption and over confidence.
Although comparisons can be made to early Chemical Brothers and other bands of their ilk in terms of the sound delivered here, Hadouken don’t appear to have put any kind of personalised stamp on ‘MAD’ and despite sounding ballsy and big, it is let down by over confidence and unoriginality.
Hadouken! your homework is to try better.