The quintet Kasabian was formed at the edge of millenniums, and indie-rock was chosen as the main direction. However, as it comes from the genre’s name, the major factor in the British’ creativity has always been the independence. That is why their music can be described in many different ways: psychedelia, space rock and so on. Elements of electronica also found their place in the musicians’ compositions: Kasabian enjoy experimenting with the sound a lot. Listeners, in their turn, always took that creative freedom in a great way, because the rockers’ intuition had never let them down. The debut self-titled record Kasabian became a real breakthrough, which brought the well-deserved attention to the band. The hit song Reason Is Treason flew over the planet in no time and introduced the new band for music lovers. A couple of years later not less interesting long play Empire saw the light and it conquered the albums chart of Great Britain. Sometimes a band can work out all the potential within a few years or after releasing several albums. Well, Kasabian is not one of such groups for sure. They released West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum in 2009 and it strengthened their positions on the world music stage. Now it is time for their new creation to demonstrate that the quintet keeps on improving.
Listeners hung great hopes on Kasabian's new piece of art. The long-awaited release finally took place, and now every wishing person has an opportunity to get acquainted with that record. It greets us with the opening track with quite a loud and self-explicatory title Let's Roll Just Like We Used To. It is followed by the not less atmospheric composition Days Are Forgotten, which got an incredibly firm drums part. It just does not have any extra useless elements, everything is rather ascetic, which brings some charm. The track La Fee Verte will please listeners with the shifts of rhythmic patterns and at the same time with its unity in general. Who knows if it was difficult to achieve this, and if the rockers had such an aim at all, but the result turned out to be fascinating indeed. The album’s title song, Velociraptor!, will be remembered by listeners for sure. It is a punchy one, and it has the incredibly bright chorus. After all, velociraptor is a predator, and he is supposed to stay confident. Both the rack and the album proved to be just like this: tenacious and unflinching.
Indie-rock gives the infinite possibilities for the musicians. It implies the beautiful freedom of self-expression, and members of Kasabian deal with that freedom in a truly fancy way. Yes, all the songs from the new album had been written by Sergio Pizzorno, but it does not mean that other members of the group did not take part in the further development of these very compositions. Thereby, altogether they prepared eleven amazing tracks that differ from each other, but at the same time they are united by the general style. Thus, Acid Turkish Bath (Shelter From The Storm) with its east motives is really distant from electro-rock Switchblade Smiles. But within the whole album, these songs somehow complete each other. The order of composition is one of the things that had been worked out by the rockers very well. There is no doubt that Velociraptor! is a successful work. It is a strong attempt, created by the professionals, who enjoy sharing their love to music with the listeners.
West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum
Empire
Illumination 2005
Illumination it is not the old-timers trying to cash in by strapping themselves to the current craze. This album is the old-timers taking the kids to school. Earth, Wind & Fire show no signs of creative struggle, working strain or musical aging
