Hadouken

Taking their name from the Street Fighter video game, this Leeds-based UK band was lumped in with the "new rave" movement of the late 00s despite their music displaying a broader range of musical references than many of their so-called contemporaries. Hadouken! was formed in 2006 by James Smith (vocals), Daniel "Pilau" Rice (guitar/vocals), Nick Rice (drums/samples), and Alice Spooner (synthesizer). A series of gigs around Leeds and London attracted the attention of the music press, who began to take notice of the band's rabid teenage following, although their abrasive mixture of dance punk, techno, grime and indie rock led to some confusion as to how to correctly brand their music. With the addition of bass player Christopher Purcell, they completed the double a-side "That Boy That Girl"/"Tuning In', released in February 2007 on their own Surface Noise Records label. The single took off on the Internet and led to invitations to play several of the summer's big festivals, including the Summer Sonic Festival in Osaka, Japan, and the Reading Festival in the UK, and a major label contract with Atlantic Records. Two mixtapes were also released during the year. The second, Not Here To Please You, featured six original tracks and several remixes, including Hadouken!"s mixes of tracks by artists including Bloc Party and Plan B, and was only made available on a USB memory stick. The full-length Music For An Accelerated Culture (2008) featured two popular, older tracks, "Liquid Lives" and "That Boy That Girl", alongside newer recordings that seemed tailor made for the band's largely teenage audience.