ROUT & RORY C; NOURISHMENT EP
★★★★
Beautiful melodic electronic stylings from Enter Shikari frontman.
For those of you who don't know, ROUT is the DJ alter-ego of Enter Shikari vox-man/synth-ist Rou Reynolds, and Rory C is, well, Rory C, guitarist from Enter Shikari. This 4-track EP, produced for Action Aid's 'Bollocks To Poverty' campaign, is a great slice of (at times) slightly crackers electronic/dubstep, built around sound clips from Action Aid's videos from around the globe, such as taking samples of songs from African tribes and the like - it's an unusual take, and it makes for great listening.
Underlined by the kind of synths and delicious wub-wub-wubs that are commonplace amongst Enter Shikari's unique genre-ical slant, this showcases the more melodic side of electronic music. There are no Mariana Trench-deep bass drops to shake your bones to powder - its instead more subtle, and even with the drum & bass style drum patterns, is a pretty chilled affair. The vocal clips add to this sense, though that is not to say that it doesn't get a little bit filthy at times...
The best song on the EP, for me, is Reaching Across The Globe, which has the aforementioned crackers-ness - trumpets ahoy! I heard the most Shikari parallels in this one, but there's no sense that one copies the style of the other, and vice-versa. Case and point on the subtle/chilled front is Mary's Song though (done with Rory C), which builds and builds from a lovely acoustic guitar/vocal melody into the most subtle of wubs, and then ups tempo when the drums kick in. However, with the vocal bit on repeat through the song, that beautiful edge to the track is retained. The other 2 tracks, How Are You & Nourishment, are more led by the tribal vocal stylings - all of these different aspects add up to make something truly unique in its sound.
I wholeheartedly recommend getting this - its thoroughly different, shot through with acoustic guitar, trumpets, distinctive vocals that all compliment the electronic backbone fantastically - you might be dubious that such things could be combined, but the evidence is right here. It's also great music to just sit back and listen to. It's available from http://www.entershikari.com/downloads/ for a minimum of £1, with all proceeds going to Action Aid. Do something good today, get some great music that goes to a great cause and say bollocks to poverty.
