Enter Shikari, that unsigned band who managed to sell out the Astoria thanks to their 40,000 MySpace friends (not all of them, obviously, the Astoria's not quite that big), have announced they have gone into partnership with Vital/PIAS's previously reported indie-label-support operation Integral. The Vital division will provide a marketing framework to help the band release their debut recordings via their own Ambush Reality label.
Confirming their decision to work with Integral on a self-release approach, rather than signing to a conventional record label, the band's management told reporters: "We met a lot of good, talented people from labels over the past couple of months but at the end of the day, with the amount of work Enter Shikari have put into this already themselves, there was a definite feeling that someone would have to have offered something pretty special in order for us to allow them to the honour of sticking their logo on the back of the records. Despite all the (arguably ridiculous) talk of 'the death of the major label', it's sad to see the amount of bands who still cannot resist the lure of the easy option when the chance presents itself. Ultimately, we couldn't allow Enter Shikari to be one of those bands. We're excited as hell to be working with Pete, Ian and the guys at Integral and Vital. Hopefully we'll not only release some great music together, but maybe even change the landscape a little, AND have a good time doing it (which is what it's all about, right?)".
Vital Group MD Pete Thompson added: "When we first set up Integral it would have been our dream to work on this sort of level with an artist with this potential. A year after starting Integral it has grown from a staff of two to a team of five and one of the most exciting bands in the country is going to be working with us. Enter Shikari have so far done everything themselves and created an enormous demand for their music. They want to do things differently and we are delighted to be able to offer them the infrastructure and support to be able to do so. This band will change things and they've already started!"