Kasabian‘s new single ‘Switchblade Smiles’ premiered last night on Zane Lowe’s show on Radio 1 (surprise, surprise). It’s the first track from their new album Velociraptor!, set to be released in September.
Kasabian will be hoping to replicate the success of their 2009 album West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum which was far and away the highpoint of their career so far, it will take quite something to top that.
The band had claimed the new album would be “heavy as fuck” and ‘Switchblade Smiles’ certainly doesn’t mess about. It is a dark, sinister and sleazy track which retains the hefty guitar riffs, bravado and rock n’ roll swagger of old while delving into filthy electro through a mix of big beats, distorted bass and synth lines.
This is not the first time they have entered the realms of big electronic beats but, it does bring to mind the much famed rock/dance fusion perfected by The Prodigy over the years.
It’s not a totally new departure for Kasabian but it is an interesting one.