Glass Animals share new song with Denzel Curry, announce collab project and AU tour

In their first piece of new music in three years, Glass Animals shake things up in a big way.

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With two remarkably popular albums under their belt - 2014's career-launching debut ZABA and How To Be A Human Being two years later, in 2016 - Glass Animals have had the space to explore the many facets of their sound as a band constantly staying ahead of the curve, and that's something they've done - albeit largely in the indie-pop space from which they've grown. It's been three years since their second album, and while things have gotten in the way of the group recording their third, it seems like they're back on track, with the first taste of their new direction shining through today in Tokyo Drifting.

Featuring Florida rapper and Pilerats favourite Denzel Curry, the track is a massive change of pace from the band who are stepping away from their glistening indie-pop into something more centralised in electronica, with dizzying synth lines and bursting melodies building until a climactic verse by Denzel Curry. It's a collaboration that seems a bit jagged on paper, but it's somehow pulled off with the perfect precision - a strong feat, considering the fact that Glass Animals haven't dipped their toes into the collaborative world for a while now, most recently being on Flume's Skin Companion II in 2017.

"The first thing Denzel said to me about the track was 'this is fire.' Then he said, 'Is this you flexin’?' and I said - 'Yeh...it is...sort of,' says the band on the track. "It’s an ironic internal flex - me as a narrator describing/taking the piss out of an extreme alter ego version of myself; a version of me that can do things that I’m uncomfortable doing. Wavey Davey is my fucked-up Sasha Fierce; he’s a geezer, a street fighter, he can dance, he parties hard, he’s spontaneous. He can take hits and be told he is shit and not care because he’s confident. He can fight everything the world throws at him."

It's the first taste of a greater collaborative project called Fresh Fruit, which will take Dave Bayley's experience in songwriting behind-the-scenes (he's worked with acts ranging from 6LACK and Khalid to Joey Bada$$) and places them within the Glass Animals sphere, promising some really enticing, genre-bending efforts in the process that take the group into completely unforeseen territory in a welcome, long overdue return.

They're playing two shows in Australia next week - Melbourne's Prince Bandroom on November 18th, followed by The Factory in Sydney the day after - but for now, dive into Tokyo Drifting with Denzel Curry below: