LONDON (AFP) - Experimental British rockers Radiohead released a video for a song entitled Burn The Witch on Tuesday but kept fans hanging on for details of their long-awaited new album.

The four-minute video released on the band's website opens with an idyllic English village scene which soon spirals into nightmarish images of persecution.

It features stop-motion models reminiscent of 1960s British children's television shows and also seems to have been influenced by the classic horror film The Wicker Man.

Burn The Witch includes the band's signature dark and cryptic lyrics, with lines including: "Shoot the messenger, this is a low-flying panic attack" and "Stay in the shadows, cheer the gallows, this is a round-up".

The Guardian newspaper's review of the song called it "thrilling - a burst of taut, tense music, driven by pizzicato strings that had more in common with conventional rock than some hints had led us to believe".

Radiohead released Spectre - a song they wrote for the last James Bond film but which was rejected in favour of Sam Smith's Writing's On The Wall - as a free download on Dec 25 last year.

Their last proper single release came in 2011, from their last album The King Of Limbs.

They are expected to release a new album imminently and have left a series of clues in recent days that have fuelled fans' anticipation.

The band's social media profiles went blank on Monday, while some British fans were mailed a mysterious leaflet in the post which said: "Sing The Song Of Sixpence That Goes Burn The Witch We Know Where You Live".

Radiohead will play a series of concerts in six cities around the world from May 20 and appear at eight festivals later this year.

The five-piece, who have sold more than 30 million albums worldwide since 1993, have not released any details of their next album other than confirming that they have been in the studio.