Enter Shikari Album Launch
June 24th, 2009 by AdamEnter Shikari burst onto the scene in 2006, famously selling out the Astoria purely off the support generated by one download-only single. Since then it’s been one step up after another, from festival appearances, global tours and high placing in charts like the Youtube Most-Viewed, so it’s hard to really argue with their press-generated mantle of the ‘fastest growing band in the UK’. They managed to stay admirably focused throughout the industry furore surrounding their initial explosion, keeping a true DIY method to both the music and the business side of things, so now it’s time to see if new release Common Dreads can deliver the goods.
As a live prospect Shikari have always been a feel-good band, their shows feeling more like a house party than a gig. Taking the crowd from stadium-rock singalong moments to two-step skanking via a wall of death, the new tracks only show that they’ve ramped up the variety developed in their earlier songs. From the erratic chords of current single Juggernauts to the more punk-flavoured Antwerpen the sound is fresh, exciting and rammed with creative ideas, arguably with a big influence from the current surge in musical creativity in the UK, reflecting the more lo-fi, grimy, urban sound of artists like Dizzee Rascal and The Streets along with their more usual screamo and thrash sound. The (extremely) young crowd only got their hands on the album on the morning of the show and yet most of them already know every key change and chorus, lapping up the new songs as avidly as the now-classic Mothership.
Where Shikari’s creativity really starts to shine is in their fearlessness at mashing their influences one after another, instead of blending them neatly into a refined sound. It’s a method that must lead to some horrific failed experiments in the studio, but by the time they reach the stage it’s a perfect way to combine the best of both worlds for a crowd who would be just as happy at a rave as in the pit.
The delivery is also spot on as always – the boys clearly love being up on stage, whether taking turns whirling into the crowd on the heavier breakdowns or hopping on the spot to an impromptu happy hardcore interlude, and they present their set with an honesty and shits-n-giggles attitude to making mistakes that’s hard not to admire.
You get the feeling that in any city in the world, be it London or Tokyo, Shikari will always be welcomed as home-town boys. The years since their first release have clearly not taken their toll either, their enthusiastic energy on stage effortlessly whipping up an already hyped audience. As long as they can survive another round of tours the prospects for the future are looking sky high.
