If the future of music can be reasonably projected it’s surely one in which the barriers between music fans and the old tribal lines of genre identity get smudged, erased, forgotten. Trust Enter Shikari to be impatient for tomorrow, to come blazing in with something that doesn’t just blur those lines but obliterates them, something that doesn’t imagine that future in terms of an ugly stich-up job between genres but brings it to life with a fluid ease that’s sublime, natural, utterly thrilling. ‘The Mindsweep: Hospitalised’ is a collaboration between the future-rock legends and London-based Hospital records who since 1996 have become one of the foremost labels in global drum and bass. Far beyond a mere gentle rerubbing, ‘Hospitalised’ brings every track on Enter Shikari’s 2015 ‘The Mindsweep’ album together with some of the most cutting edge artists working in d’n’b today to create a map of musical possibility that will blow the minds of Shikari and Hospital fans alike. Crucially, though a revelatory recasting of the St. Albans four-piece’s UK Top Ten album, the collaboration feels entirely natural, inevitable, perfect, a genuine meeting of minds. Not just a future dream but a present reality, a devastating suite of imagination and daring that puts the future in your pocket today, right now. Don’t see it as a new direction. See it as an inevitable step in Shikari’s ongoing progress away from the predictable and deeper into their own roots.
Enter Shikari are no neophytes in the d’n’b world, they’re long-time fans. "The first drum and bass to really grab us we heard through our guitarist Rory’s brother, who was a drum and bass DJ” says Rou. “We'd crowd round his decks and get ourselves a drum and bass education - 2003/2004, a lot of Ram stuff, Andy C, High Contrast, London Elektricity. I also grew up with a lot of Motown and Northern Soul in my house because my Dad used to DJ that stuff - the early Hospital stuff seemed related, very melodic, heavily sample-based. It clicked with me straight away."
For Chris Goss - co-founder and major-domo of Hospital - the collaboration was a great idea waiting to happen: "Well, a while back the band wanted a couple of our artists to remix some of their songs from their second album, ‘Common Dreads’ and it was clear they were keen to explore more ideas and possibilities. When you're dealing with a major label those types of conversations peter out, you're at the mercy of a big machine. Now the band are at Play It Again Sam they reached out to us again and we could dive into it further”
It was crucial to Chris that Shikari weren’t just dilettantes and were willing to un-preciously submit their music for total rewiring. Listening, it emerges that the ‘Hospitalised’ title isn’t just a neat pun, it perfectly reflects the almost forensic vivisection going on. Everything is up for grabs. Every tactic can be used. “For me, I knew for a fact that the band were genuine” Chris affirms. “In my experience there are certain times when drum and bass is 'cool' and other times when it’s not - these moments come and go. It was important to me that I knew Shikari were genuine fans and whilst It was a great opportunity for us and our artists. It was also an exciting 'unknown' project that would require a lot of serious work but would ultimately take us into areas we've never dug into before.”
That pioneering sense of mutual discovery and exploration went all the way from the initial concept through to the decision process about which Hospital artists would remix which ‘Mindsweep’ tracks and became a truly collaborative project
Rou - "Me and Rory listened to the album again trying to get different perspectives. Some jumped out straight away - that Keeno should do ‘The One True Colour’, that Reso should do ‘Anaesthetist’, it was clear what their ideal tracks would be to us, cos we’re such fans of Hospital.”
“‘'The Mindsweep' is so diverse” agrees Chris, “one of the most important things for me and the artists was that it wasn't just guitar and vocals. I could hear that Rou and the band had got influences from drum-and-bass itself. We took time, picked through each track and made our decisions. I wanted my artists to know that we were going to approach it like we were putting an album out - a very different mindset."
That attention to detail, that focus on the songs has led to an album as diverse and driven as ‘The Mindsweep’ itself. What’s emerged from this open, exploratory process is an album that’s way, way more than just a remix project. Each track on the Mindsweep has been given a unique twist by Hospital’s roster of knob-twiddling genii, each artist bringing to the party their own particular spin on the Shikari magic, accentuating and emphasising parts of the ‘Mindsweep’s musical maelstrom in ways that reflect their own styles, but that keep Shikari’s strengths in songwriting, musical precision and power intact. Throughout, it’s those commonalities between the two genres that shine through, the similar thrill-buttons both genres push.
Rou: "The big thing for me that both rock and drum and bass have is that tension and release. Drum and bass has the drop, rock music has the breakdown - it's all about that build, that escalation 'something's coming, something's coming'. That's what really gets me going'.
For some of Hospital’s roster this project was entirely new territory. For some, it was a dream come true.
Chris: “Artists like Danny Byrd, who drops an astonishing remix of ‘There’s A Price On Your Head’, was initially bewildered by what to do with the song while Keeno was hyperventilating about the prospect of working on this project. He was like 'I grew up listening to this band'. Metrik was the same, Urbandawn from Sao Paulo, Brazil is a massive Shikari fan.
Fans of both Enter Shikari and Hospital should expect the unexpected, should expect to have their minds blown. Ask both Rou and Chris what they think their fanbases will make of it and they’re equally excited.
Rou: "I'm really intrigued to see what's gonna happen. I think on the whole it'll be really positive - we've been doing aftershow parties for as long as we can remember and when we DJ it's predominately drum and bass we play and the Shikari Sound System has been about stripping away all the organic instruments from our music and turning our music into a midi set, all synth-based. We’ve written stuff specifically for Shikari Sound System, and have done loads of remixes since then so I think our fans are prepared for this. I think everyone's just gonna be really digging it - there's a lot of our fans who are fans of Hospital so I think there'll be a lot of excitement.”
‘The Mindsweep: Hospitalised’ is truly a project perfect for these times. A project that doesn’t just hint at the current fluid nature of music but that embodies it. “We used to get into all sorts of confrontations just from the fact that we were playing music that was taking influences from these different worlds” admits Rou. “Some people didn't like it, thought it was disrespectful. You had that in the more testosterone-fuelled rave culture as well - people who thought listening to rock music was just disgraceful. In the early days of Shikari there was a lot of confused faces, a lot of angry faces but now that seems to have pretty much disappeared. For us it felt very natural for these different worlds to be coming together. We always set out to make music that was dynamic and passionate and that's it. Didn't care about the boundaries, sub-genres and politics that go with it."
For Chris similarly, ‘Hospitalised’ is emblematic of where music should be heading. A future in which divisions between music fans are finally destroyed. There's no reason to have those barriers anymore and I think Shikari are a great example of that. Theoretically, while selling records and physical music these days is quite hard as we all know, the playlist culture and the access to crossover and massive audiences is bigger than I've ever known it and it’s changed music fans completely. I've absolutely no idea how Hospital fans will react to this project and I'm fascinated to find out!”
The future starts here. Get yourself committed soon as. Get yourself ‘Hospitalised’.