CD REVIEWS: LEICESTER WAKES UP AND SMELLS THE ROSES
BY JOHN REVILL
Birmingham Post
September 11, 2004, Saturday
Kasabian – Kasabian (RCA) pounds 12.99 Once in a while comes a band
which shakes the torpid music scene to its core and creates its own
frame of reference.
Kasabian, although not for want of trying, are not one of those bands.
But this needn’t be a bad thing either, and in a sea of mediocrity
they are definitely stand-outs.
Festivals everywhere this summer were festooned with their flags,
showing a sort of Che Guevara bandit figure, so at least the band
had the marketing right.
Thankfully the music walked the walk, when Kasabian sprung into the
public consciousness earlier this year with the twin bass assault of
Club Foot.
The track, a soaring call to arms in aid of what I’m not quite sure,
sets the tone for the rest of the album, with an atmospheric soundscape
and soaring harmonies.
For while Kasabian may sound like something from Azerbaijan or Armenia,
they are actually from Leicester and owe a great deal to bands from
more northern climes.
Think the lighter moments of The Fall, mix with Stone Roses and add
a little of Primal Scream’s anarchist electro rock period (Xtrmntr),
and you are getting close.
The mighty Club Foot is followed by Processed Beats, which sounds
a little lazy in comparison, strumming merrily along like something
the Roses neglected to put on a b-side.
But Reason is Treason and I.D are back on track again with the
combination of strange keyboard sounds and scaling guitars building
up to euphoric bits.
Apparently Kasabian all live on a farm, although from some of the
rhetoric it is probably a collective farm, albeit a pretty productive
one.
Running Battle is not as fierce as it sounds, and the rest of the
album rumbles along like an impromptu riot or concert waiting to be
stopped by the police.
Apparently two of the band members gave up budding football careers
(Karloff was on the books of Aston Villa) for rock and roll.
That may be pushing it a bit, but with their mix of loud guitars,
harmonies, strange keyboard sounds and samples, they are a lot better
than Leicester City.
The second best debut of the year. HHHH