Tribalism Track By Track Review

• Today’s instalment is frontman Rou Reynolds’ and guitarist Rory Clewlow’s track-by-track account of the album…

Tribalism
“We started writing this track when we begin rehearsing and pre production for Common Dreads. The track didn't get onto Common Dreads because we weren't totally happy with it at the time, plus it's a bit of a change in direction from a lot of our other stuff. We felt we really wanted to go back after the album was released and add the final touches to it. As a band we've always liked to branch out and move ourselves through different sounds, this sound represents that side of us pretty well.”

Thumper
“This track was written when we went to put the final touches on Tribalism. The song itself came together very quickly, and was recorded in two days. It's more typical of our usual sound. It has a real nasty synth line which is one of the real focuses of the song along with our more hardcore punk influences. Bit of a banger this one, that's why we named it Thumper. It was originally a working title, but we couldn't think of any title that suited it better.”

All Eyes On The Saint
“Again, we started writing this song when we were writing Common Dreads. We've always been very proud of where we came from, and St Albans had a strong scene that influenced us heavily. The lyrics in the song tell the story of how history tells us St Alban became the first Christian martyr. We also loved the idea of having one track which was through composed... Meaning it follows no structure and doesn't stick to the standard Verse, Chorus, Verse routine. It didn't end up totally that way after we'd played about with the arrangement, but it's still a seven minute B-side which takes you on a musical journey through time!”

Insomnia (Live at Brixton ‘07)
“This track is a cover of Faithless' Insomnia. We covered it during our headline tour of the UK which finished at Brixton Academy. We made the decision to cover this song in particular because it was a massive dance tune - we obviously have elements of dance music in our sound and we thought we'd be able to give the track a new, and different lease of life.”

Juggernauts (Nero Remix)
“We are all big fans of Nero, he's remixed some of the biggest tunes of the last couple of years - In the Middle and Hypercaine, to name a couple. We were very proud to have him do a remix of one of our tunes. Since it was released it's become very popular and probably our most successful remix to date.”

No Sleep Tonight (Qemists remix)
“The Qemists are some of our very good friends, we were out on tour in mainland Europe and we invited these guys along as a supporting act. Every night they nailed it! It only seemed natural after we knew how well we got along to have them do a remix for us. They are all amazing producers and we had no doubt they'd do an amazing job. Rou repaid the favour and did a dubstep remix for one of their singles, it's called Swag if you wanted to check it out...”

Wall (High Contrast Remix)
“We've always been big fans of High Contrast. Big fans of a lot of the Hospital Records releases in general. High Contrast has been one of the leading players when it comes to producing drum n bass and we were chuffed to have him do a version of our single Wall."

No Sleep Tonight (Mistabishi Remix)
“The first track we heard from Mistabishi was Printer Jam, it's truly unbelievable! We were real happy when we first heard his version of No Sleep Tonight. It was like nothing we'd heard before. It's a very dark remix and I think it really stands out and complements his already experimental style.”

Juggernauts (Blue Bear's True Tiger Remix)
“The True Tiger label is a dubstep label fairly local to us. We've always thought they had a great selection of producers and after inviting them to come on the road with us on one of our headline UK tours, we had to fight them off from doing a whole album of remixes for us. They are all lovely guys with a real passion and talent for producing. Blue Bear is one of their most up n coming producers and his remix of Juggernauts is one that we really loved.”

No Sleep Tonight (Rout Remix)
“Obviously in the process of getting remixes done for the singles from Common Dreads, it was pretty impossible to stop Rou doing one himself... He's been doing a lot of producing recently and has been making a name for himself solely as a dubstep / drum ‘n’ bass producer. I guess it doesn't really need any more explanation. This is Rou's remix of No Sleep Tonight.”

No Sleep Tonight (LightsGoBlue Remix)
“These boys come on the road with us every once in a while. They are awesome dudes who perform as a 2 piece live act. They really add something that none of the other remixes had, they give it a real poppy/electro vibe.”

Havoc A (Live '09)
“Taken from the tour where we first played this song live. The Havocs from Common Dreads were originally meant to be completely electronic interludes. However we felt it would be better and more exciting to turn them into full band live tracks. So when we recorded them for Common Dreads we worked real hard on making them sound like a real band playing, rather than just electronic samples. Doing this allowed us to play them live and they have become a bit part of our set. Hopefully, this is a good example of how drum ‘n’ bass / dubstep can be performed live, with a full band.”

Labyrinth (Live '09)
“This is a track from Take To The Skies, so a slightly older track. We decided to put these live tracks on because we thought they really represented the vibe at one of our shows. They are raw recordings and hopefully it should give people an indication of what it's like at one of our shows. We think you can really feel the intensity of the audience in the recording.

Hectic (Live '09)
“Another live track, only this is a new track from Common Dreads. It's always been a real fun live track for us to perform... also a bit of a crowd favourite.”