By Samantha Nwaoshai

“Imitation is the highest form of flattery,” or at least that is how the saying goes, right? The real question is when it comes to the mainstream adapting indie as its own. Are the major labels finally realizing the potential, talent and artistic merit of independent music? Or is this a ruse to generate lots of money because of the indie-hype right now? The thing with Kasabian’s self titled debut is you just don’t know. Since this is a major label release and follows a lot of indie clichés (dark techno beats infused with rock guitars), it makes you want to think and agree with the latter.

Kasabian is basically corporate-indie at best. Corporate-indie is basically everything indie except that the merit, creativity and originality have been replaced with dollar signs. The album’s opener and first single “Club Foot,” is clearly an example of this. The first time anyone on this side of the Atlantic heard them was in a commercial for a car. The fact that the MTV2 show “Subterranean” felt compelled to show the video for “Club Foot” pretty much every week proves there has to be some kind of deal somewhere.

It doesn’t help when the CD just won’t be a CD and let you download the tracks onto your computer or just listen without a big production. No, this has to be as difficult as humanly possible. First, you have to comply with their usage license. The CD opens to a website-like thing where you hear the music. However, if you try to copy songs, there will be issues. To make a long story short, you are going to spend more time trying to open the CD and copying tracks to I-Tunes then the time it would take to listen to it. Thank you Corporate America!

Then there is the music itself. The album as a whole draws from techno and electronica a great deal. This is not a guitar-vocal record, it’s techno with a little bit of guitar. The second track on the album is named “Processed Beats.” Pun or are they trying to tell us something?

This is not to say that the entire album sucks. There are some songs on the album that are worth having on your MP3 player. “Lost Souls Forever” and “Running Battle” are great examples; they are the least electronic tracks on the entire album. However, almost all of the songs have the same kind of fuzz intro opening so you think you are playing the same song on repeat by mistake.

In short, Kasabian is documented evidence of why indie and commercialism should never mix.