Re-Enter Shikari?

Enter Shikari return on the 22nd Feb with ‘Tribalism – A Common Dread Companion’ one of those unusual hinterland albums that comprise of bits of new stuff, some live stuff and some remixed stuff. You know, tide the fans over until the next big album and something to promote during the up and coming tour (which commences on Feb 6th). If you’re no stranger to Enter Shikari then there will be no great surprises here. Expect the same effervescent power pop/rock they are famed for which is represented in good form with the two new tracks ‘Tribalism’ and ‘Thumper’.

There’s also one of the oddest live covers I have ever heard which comes in the form of the band taking on ‘Insomnia’ by Faithless. It is one of those unusual mouth open moments which really shouldn’t work, yet incredibly enough does (and hearing the crowd “dur dur-ing” along to one of dance music’s seminal keyboard riffs is worth the price of admission alone). Of course as the guitars kick on it does start to fall apart a little bit but the fact that it’s so well intentioned means I’ll let it pass.

If you’re looking for the lifeblood of this collection though, you need to head straight for the remixes. With an opening salvo courtesy of Nero recutting ‘Juggernaut’ the band prove they are sorted to being reinterpreted along the harder scale of dance music. Other offerings come courtesy of The Qemists who deliver a punchier rendition of ‘No Sleep Tonight’

Highlight from this particular suite comes from High Contrast who land a particularly strident recut of ‘Wall’ (you know what High Contrast do by now, right? well they do it again here and to great effect). Most of the remixes are in this kind of vein so by the time you get through the additional offerings from Blue Bear and Mistabishi you’re almost glad to step off the pedal and get back to more of the live material which closes the album in the shape of three cuts (Havoc, Labyrinth, Hectic) from last year’s tour.

All in all as a companion piece to ‘Common Dread’ it works very well. The live material is solid and the remixes are all perfectly appropriate to the original material making this a surprisingly well rounded little package. Usually companion pieces and “add on” discs don’t have that much to say but in this instance if you liked the original album you’ll be on safe ground with this, plus there’s enough here to keep the harder edged club heads happy as well.

Recommend.