Hadouken!

One of the many indie bands that fought for the title "Voice of Young Britain 2008," Hadouken! arrived with the manifesto "We are the wasted youth/And we are the future too." Naming themselves after a special move from the video game Street Fighter, the band combined indie rock, rave culture, and grime influences to create music that sounded like Lords of Acid, Dizzee Rascal, and Test Icicles played all at once. They came together in late 2006 when two Leeds University students — James Smith and Daniel Rice — decided to do things backwards and first form a record label — Surface Noise Records — and then form a band. In early 2007, Mike Skinner — the man behind the U.K. grime act the Streets — gave the band their big break when he played their track "That Boy, That Girl" on BBC Radio 1 while filling in during Zane Lowe's usual time slot. The single arrived in May and quickly caught the attention of both NME magazine and Britain's MTV2. The rest of the year was filled by the "Liquid Lives" single, a track on Vol. 4 of the taste-making Kitsuné Maison compilation series, a mixtape on an USB stick called Not Here to Please You, plus a U.K. tour filled with exciting shows and positive press. In early 2008, their raucous single "Get Smashed Gate Crash" preceded their debut album, Music for the Accelerated Culture, which was released in conjunction with major label Atlantic.