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There's a worrying first few moments of London three piece Akira's new single I THINK OF YOU AS MISS UNIVERSE that sounds suspiciously like a monkey picking up a guitar for the first time, cranking the volume to eleven and bashing away to his hearts content. Of course, such worries fade into insignificance as they hit that first chorus and reveal themselves for the noisy indie pop heroes they are. Singer Joel sounds like Robert Smith fronting Sonic Youth, wrapping his anguished howls and intricate yelps around ragged bursts of random guitar noise and skyscrapering riffs. Think Sonic Youth, think Fugazi, think Far, think Orange 9mm - but mostly just think, messy post-hardcore with melodies to die for and a heart of gold.
With a flipside in the Various Productions remix of SOHO, Akira delve into the murky waters of darkly menacing drum n bass by way of post-rock. Sounding like Blade Runner being soundtracked by Mogwai and remixed by the Aphex Twin, this is the stuff of dark nightmares and post apocalyptic visions.
Sounding like Bloc Party with a better record collection and a healthy disregard for conventions, Akira are the type of band to restore your faith in discordant guitar noise and chaos. Noisy, brooding, melodic and unpredictable - Akira make a beautifully intense noise.

Forming in a sticky mess on November 9th 2001 and driven dissatisfaction with boring bands, Akira love the noise that music makes.
Based on a mutual love for pop and post-rock the noisenik trio began life spending a year in solitude - teaching themselves to work and play each other over - before they began to venture outside...
Stage two involved honing their skills live - learning how to unleash pretty sonic assaults on unsuspecting members of the public with clinical precision. And party moves.
In 2004 they initiated the third stage swapping Cambridge for London, books for day jobs and all moved into the same house.
This seemed like a good idea at the time.
Since then they've kept themselves busy and began to hit their stride: beefing up with new effect pedals and an electric drumkit. Gathered unanimously rave reviews and underground respect; engineering their own live music events across the capital.
They say they stand for star-gazing. A gang of three armed with the belief that 'popular' and 'dumb' don't need to fuck each other over all the time.
Their music has been described with adjectives: the evil stepchild of Mogwai and Nirvana force-fed a steady diet of Godspeed You! Black Emperor; dirty post-punk freedom fighters. Or something like that.
Their influences include: The Karate Kid, Philip K Dick, The Chapman Brothers, Derrida, Battle Of The Planets, Chaos Theory, Father John, Edward Thomas, Alan Moore, Sleepwalker, Bourdieu, Jeremy Paxman, London Underground, David Fincher, Chris Morris, The American Dream and Jesus Christ.
While their lyrical preoccupation's involve: girls, evil aliens and global annihilation.
They enjoy walks in the park and watching sunsets with loved ones.

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