Enter Shikari released Higher Ground on October 7, just ahead of an autumn run that moves from small UK rooms into the Lose Your Self tour. The new track is announced on the band's official website. Fans have a fresh recording to hear now, and live dates coming up later this month.
The warm-ups are at Oxford's O2 Academy on October 21 and Leicester's O2 Academy on October 22. Both are listed as sold out on the band's shows page. London group Sunday Best are the announced guests. Shikari said these smaller bookings would come before their European and UK production rehearsals. They offer a different setting from the larger venues on the November schedule.
That schedule begins in Hamburg at Sporthalle on November 3, with Munich, Leipzig, Düsseldorf and Berlin following. In the UK, the listed dates include Nottingham's Motorpoint Arena on November 13, Glasgow's OVO Hydro on November 18 and Manchester's Co-op Live on November 19. London has two nights at Alexandra Palace, on November 20 and 21. Anyone planning to go should check the individual listing for current ticket information rather than assume availability across the whole run.
Higher Ground follows April's Lose Your Self, released through So Recordings and Ambush Reality. The album arrived without advance singles and was presented as a complete listen. Its 12-track sequence ends with the three parts of Spaceship Earth. A new single gives listeners another way back into that year of music. It doesn't have to replace the album as the starting point; someone can hear the track, then work backwards.
The release also comes after a more difficult piece of news. On October 1, Enter Shikari said they would stop recording and performing from December 31, 2027. Whether they return is uncertain. They didn't announce a farewell world tour, and they said their immediate attention was on this November's shows. There is still time between now and that break, even if fans are already wondering what it will mean.
Next year marks 20 years of Take To The Skies, ten of The Spark and 15 of A Flash Flood Of Colour. Celebration plans were still being discussed in the statement. Those anniversaries offer plenty to revisit without guessing at releases or events that haven't been announced. It is a good opportunity to listen to an older record from beginning to end, perhaps one that has slipped out of the usual rotation.
Our discussion of downtime on tour looked at time away from performing. The pause Shikari have described is longer and less certain, but the idea of leaving room outside a touring schedule is relevant. For now, the new song and the approaching dates are the concrete things to follow. October's club shows come first; November's larger rooms are next.
