my music: enter shikari

Hi guys!

Normally I don't like to bother you with my personal taste in music. Everyone has a different taste, hence you potentially don't care much about mine.
But sometimes I can't hold it back and have to shout out how amazing a band or artist is. As this is my personal blog and as music plays a big role in my life I think I should actually do music posts more often.

Anyway, this time it's all about
Enter Shikari.


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Our story:

Well, in the beginning when their music started to be popular in Germany, I didn't like them at all. I don't even remember why, but it somehow wasn't my cup of tea. Furthermore their song "Sorry you're not a winner" was played way too often in all the rock/metal discos around.

After the hype had died down a bit, one day I started to listen through their whole album (the recent one back then, "Common Dreads") and realized how diverse and creative they are. So I listened to the predecessing album again as well and found myself loving it. Sometimes I simply need some time to become friendly with certain bands.
To cut a long story short: I've been a fan of their music ever since and listened to at least one of their albums once a week (especially during my workout in the gym as the tunes really motivate me).


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The music:

Trigger for this post is their new album "A Flash Flood of Colour" and the fact that I've been a fan for some years.

Their music has always been an ingenious mix of hard guitar parts, electro beats, shouts and clear vocals. I think their style is called Post-Hardcore, but I'm not good at pidgeonholing bands and music styles, so that's all I can say.

Their new album is even more inspired by electro and dubstep, they have some really cool wobble sounds and other electronic effects going on.
I also watched the additional video footage about the recording of the recent album and what amazed was, that they also created many of the sounds for their songs by hand. They recorded parts of the album in Thailand and so one day they marched down the street to an abandonned house there with a snair, drumsticks and other equipment and used the building's very special acoustics to their advantage.
It always impresses me when musicians put their heart and soul into their songs. It's the little details that make songs whole.


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The lyrics:

What I also value a lot is when bands stand strong for their political opinion and carry out the message with their songs and videos. I think Enter Shikari's lyrics are amazing. They're honest, outspoken but still carefully worded and euphonic:

We begin to learn to smile again
Start to walk that extra mile again
Cos I know that we are one
Fear begins to vanish when we realise
That countries are just lines,
Drawn in the sand with a stick.

They also are clear messages, straight in your face:

Fuck all borders and fuck all boundaries
Fuck all flags and fuck nationalities.

Concerning the quote above: I actually read a text of Amartya Sen, an Indian expert on international law, the other day, where he says that international justice can only be achieved when we constitute laws based on interest groups instead of determining them only within borders and natinalities. The song lyrics immediately reminded me of this.

And there are also wonderfully poetic and metaphoric lines:

There's a train at 12, destination disaster.
It's running on time as time runs faster
On platform two it's destination sustainability
It's delayed though it was suppose to arrive at 11:50.
Platform one it says stand behind the yellow line
But I sit on the platform edge and just gaze at the time.

So basically, the essence is that these guys concern theirselves with economy, ecology, society and the according deficiencies a lot, which - in my opinion - is the best you can do if you have the chance to spread the word with your arts.


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Uhm well, yes I love this band and highly recommend their music to anyone who loves electro mixed with rock/metal.
If you're not the heavy music type but a fan of poetic words I recommend their lyrics to you.
And if you're none of the above, but interested in political/ecological aspects I recommend you what lies between the lines of their lyrics.

For me it's always important to get an overview of the whole package, meaning not only the music itself, but also the lyrics, the motivation and the people, that's why this post got so long.
But sometimes I just feel the urge to express my admiration for certain things.

That being said, I finish this post by wishing you a good day! ;)




now playing: enter shikari - sssnakepit