In January 2014, Josh Modestep announced that two of their members, Nick and Matt, were saying goodbye to the group. And while it was a bitter farewell, it’s extremely unlikely that there was any animosity between the members. Still, Josh and Tony were committed to the fans and wanted to bring new and better music in the future. Well, at the risk of sounding absurdly, cliché, the future is now.
“Snake” comes as the group’s first release since their Inside My Head EP in February 2013. According to the release on UKF, “it’s been written with two new band members who they feel have really helped them chisel their sound into stark new sonic territories.”
The new song has got its roots in modern rock, à la Queens of the Stone Age or Royal Blood, and aside from the DnB breaks could hardly be called EDM. From the beginning though, Modestep has been a live band with EDM influences, so this really isn’t entirely surprising that they’ve chosen to go this route. There’s still enough electronic elements in the track to warrant hope that the rest of the new album will be more electronically focused, but this might be the first originally electronic group to make the jump over to rock.
Many are saying that the track bears resemblance to Pendulum, which would only make sense if you were thinking of In Silico. If I had to compare it to any electronic group, it would have been The Qemists, though they’re less widely known than their Perth-counterparts.
Information on the new album will be reported on as it comes, but for now, you can download “Snake” for free via UKF.