Enter Shikari - 'We Can Breathe In Space, They Just Don't Want Us To Escape'
Bands always work best when they appear to be a gang. They don't even really have to get on as people, just as long as everyone can see that they've got each other's collective back. It works best if they went to school together, or were otherwise introduced by circumstances which are not related to getting a group together. This is more 'real' than being put together live on a TV talent show, for example, and it means that fans can imagine what it would've been like if they had gone to that school at that time...maybe you could have joined the gang too (OMG! LOL! etc).
Enter Shikari are a perfect example of this. They're a four-man cottage industry, each member bringing their own special skills into the group. They are also the kind of gang you just KNOW would be amazing to hang out with, because their friendships were forged before they started thinking about rocking out.
Look, see them lark about in their bacofoil spacesuits, this looks like the most fun video shoot ever. They do not care that this is not normally the way videos are made, and why should they?
And bands who are gangs often inspire the most rabid of fanbases, because everyone who is into the band thinks of themself as a part of the family, and this generates intense loyalty, above and beyond the cause of duty. It does help if the band in question presses all the right musical buttons, obviously.
In this case, those buttons include 'Trance Burble', 'The Screaminator', 'Twiddleriffs', 'Clever Slogans About Things' and 'Structuring Songs For ADHD Kids', and the band aren't so much pressing them as hammering them into dust using their faces.
Which, again, sounds like a lot of fun. I wonder if it's too late to apply for Shikari membership, and what kind of induction rituals they may have..?
Download: Out now
CD Released: November 3rd
(Fraser McAlpine)
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