Rating: 7/10

Whilst you might not know THE S.L.P, I imagine you’ve heard of British rock group Kasabian. Serge Pizzorno found fame as the impeccably cool lead guitarist and songwriter for Kasabian, who released their debut album back in 2004. He’s been responsible for countless iconic guitar riffs over the past fifteen years on tracks like ‘Club Foot‘ and ‘Fire‘, but this year in between Kasabian albums, Serge has decided to experiment with a solo album, under the stage-name THE S.L.P. (based off of his initials), with great success.

Whilst there are some musical similarities between his solo project and the releases of Kasabian, ultimately Serge is using this album to experiment with a new style of alternative music, effectively interpolating lots of styles and genres. The first single, ‘Nobody Else’, starts with a piano medley, before the introduction of electronic drums and a catchy chorus. It’s completely different to any Kasabian record, but it works so well; Serge’s vocals sounds fantastic over the indie record as he sings of love in a monotonous world.

The album is by no means guitar heavy, despite Serge’s role in Kasabian. Some moments of the project, like ‘The Wu‘ could have been early electronic Gorillaz cuts, whilst other tracks like ‘Meanwhile… In Genova‘ instrumentally sound quite similar to Alex Turner‘s side-project The Last Shadow Puppets. That said, Serge truly has a unique voice and it is clear that whilst he might have been influenced by alternative music, he’s clearly also been influenced by funk, house and who knows what other genres.

My favourite track on the project had to be ‘Favourites‘ which features an excellent verse from rapper Little Simz. The track is intstrumentally somewhat similar to a Kasabian song, with a catchy guitar riff repeating throughout the song, however Little Simz’ rap feature really sets the track apart from the rest of the album. Her latest album proved her incredible rapping talent, and fair play to Serge for recruiting her on the project.

Little Simz isn’t the only guest to feature on the project, with Northampton rapper Slowthai making an uncredited appearance on the track ‘Meanwhile… At the Welcome Break‘. Unconventionally for Slowthai, rather than rapping he has a psychedelic-style singing feature. Honestly, I’m still a bit unsure as to whether this track is sheer genius or insanity; Slowthai takes a minute or so to warm up, but as the drums build up and the trumpet comes in after a minute or so, Slowthai’s singing is actually kind of moving.

I’m not sure if we’ll ever get another solo project from Serge in the future, but this album proves that the guitarist can stand on his own without his bandmates. Hopefully the experimentation and creativity shown by Serge on this album will ultimately help with the next Kasabian album, whenever that may come.