NationMaster - Encyclopedia: The Shamen

The Shamen were an experimental electronic music band, initially formed in Aberdeen, Scotland by Colin Angus (b. 24 August 1961), Derek McKenzie (b. 27 February 1964), Keith McKenzie (b. 30 August 1961) and Peter Stephenson (b. 1 March 1962) in the 1980s as a psychedelic-influenced indie rock act. They found underground credibility as an acid house act and pioneers of rock/dance crossover, before moving on to international commercial success with "Ebeneezer Goode" and the Boss Drum album. Aberdeen (Scottish Gaelic: ) is Scotlands third largest city (48th in Britain,[5] 313th in Europe[6]) with a population of 202,370. ... Motto: (Latin) No one provokes me with impunity(English) Wha daur meddle wi me? (Scots)[1] Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital Edinburgh Largest city Glasgow Official languages English, Gaelic, Scots[2] Government - Queen Queen Elizabeth II - Prime Minister Tony Blair MP - First Minister Jack McConnell MSP Unification - by Kenneth I... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Techno is a form of electronic dance music that became prominent in Detroit, Michigan during the mid-1980s with influences from electro, New Wave, Funk and futuristic fiction themes that were prevalent and relative to modern culture during the end of the Cold War in industrial America at that time. ... This article includes a list of works cited but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ... A yellow smiley face is considered the emblem of Acid House. ... Look up rave in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Alternative rock (also called alternative music[1] or simply alternative) is a genre of rock music that emerged in the 1980s and became widely popular in the 1990s. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... One Little Indian Records is a record label set up by Derek Birkett (former bass player of Flux Of Pink Indians) and Sue Birkett in 1985, along with Tim Kelly (formar guitar player of Flux Of Pink Indians). ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Plavka Lonich is an American-born singer who lives in London. ... Will Sinnott was a Scottish musician, born 1961, died May 1991. ... Electronic music is a term for music created using electronic devices. ... Aberdeen (Scottish Gaelic: ) is Scotlands third largest city (48th in Britain,[5] 313th in Europe[6]) with a population of 202,370. ... Motto: (Latin) No one provokes me with impunity(English) Wha daur meddle wi me? (Scots)[1] Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital Edinburgh Largest city Glasgow Official languages English, Gaelic, Scots[2] Government - Queen Queen Elizabeth II - Prime Minister Tony Blair MP - First Minister Jack McConnell MSP Unification - by Kenneth I... August 24 is the 236th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (237th in leap years), with 129 days remaining. ... 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1961 calendar). ... February 27 is the 58th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1964 (MCMLXIV) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1964 calendar). ... August 30 is the 242nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (243rd in leap years), with 123 days remaining. ... 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1961 calendar). ... March 1 is the 60th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (61st in leap years). ... 1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar). ... Psychedelia in music (or also psychedelic music, less formally) is a term that refers to a broad set of popular music styles, genres and scenes, that may include psychedelic rock, psychedelic folk, psychedelic pop, psychedelic soul, psychedelic ambient, psychedelic trance, psychedelic techno, and others. ... Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music often used to refer to bands that are on small independent record labels or that arent on labels at all. ... A yellow smiley face is considered the emblem of Acid House. ... Ebeneezer Goode is a song by British electronic music group The Shamen, which became their biggest hit when released as a single in October 1992. ... Boss Drum was The Shamens 1992 album and featured their controversial hit Ebeneezer Goode. Track Listing Boss Drum L.S.I.: Love Sex Intelligence Space Time Librae Solidi Denari Ebeneezer Goode Beatmasters Mix Comin On Phorever People Fatman Scientas Re:evolution Boss Dub Phorever Dub Categories: Album stubs | The...

History

1980s

The Shamen were preceded by Alone Again Or, the Love-inspired name under which they recorded their first singles. After their name change, further singles picked up airplay from John Peel. Released in June 1987, The Shamen's first album Drop illustrated their love of 60s psychedelia, with influences such as Love, Syd Barrett and the 13th Floor Elevators. Love is infact Sophie Ollig and Sam Irving! remember that folks ... â€œPeel Sessionsâ€ redirects here. ... Drop was the debut album by the Scottish band The Shamen, released in 1987 on their own Moksha label. ... Roger Keith Syd Barrett (6 January 1946 â€“ 7 July 2006) was an English singer, songwriter, guitarist, and artist. ... The 13th Floor Elevators were a rock music group founded in Austin, Texas in late 1965. ...

By mid-1987, frontman Colin Angus was discovering the sounds of early house music pioneers such as S-Express and M/A/R/R/S and increasing his knowledge of the latest studio gadgetry. By September 1987, the Shamen were applying these techniques to their own music, mixing rock guitars, techno and hip-hop rhythms and sampled radio voices to create the prototype rock-dance sound which was to prove so influential to groups like Pop Will Eat Itself, Jesus Jones and EMF. However, the newfound sound proved too radical for co-founder and vocalist Derek McKenzie, who the left the band in late 1987 to study at university. The Shamen were suddenly one crucial player short. Help was at hand in the charismatic form of Will Sinnott (23 December 1960–23 May 1991), who joined the group in October 1987, on bass, freeing up Colin Angus to handle vocal and guitar chores. Frontman (also front man) is a term referring to the lead singer or band leader of a music group. ... SExpress (pronounced ess-express; sometimes spelled SXpress or S-Express; otherwise known as Victim Of the Ghetto) were a British dance music act from the late 1980s who had one of the earliest commerical successes in the acid house genre. ... MARRS (or M/A/R/R/S or M|A|R|R|S) was a one-off recording act from 1987 whose sole release was the single Pump Up The Volume, which was a UK number one hit and a significant milestone in the development of British house music and... Pop Will Eat Itself (also known as PWEI or the Poppies) were an English band formed in Stourbridge, with band members from Birmingham, Coventry and the Black Country. ... Jesus Jones is a British London-based rock group that performed and recorded in the late 1980s, throughout the 1990s, and into the 2000s. ... EMF is a British indie dance band which came to prominence at the end of the 1980s and the early 1990s. ... Will Sinnott was a Scottish musician, born 1961, died May 1991. ... December 23 is the 357th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (358th in leap years). ... 1960 (MCMLX) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1960 calendar). ... May 23 is the 143rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (144th in leap years). ... 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

"Knature of a Girl" was the first record by the Shamen to feature Sinnott, but it wasn't until June's "Jesus Loves Amerika" single that the techno influence began to show. By this stage, Angus and Sinnott had become hooked on the acid house movement taking place in London, and its music and clubs were to exert a massive influence on the pair. Keith McKenzie and Peter Stephenson were less impressed by these new developments, and left the group the following summer, after the January 1989 release of the In Gorbachev We Trust album, which saw the group further enhancing their sound. A yellow smiley face is considered the emblem of Acid House. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... In Gorbachev We Trust was the second album by the Scottish band The Shamen, released in 1989. ...

Angus and Sinnott relocated to London, allowing them to start afresh, and plunge headfirst into the emerging rave scene. 1989 was to be a busy year. They set out on their legendary Synergy tour, a nightclub experience combined with live music from The Shamen and others and DJing from the likes of Mixmaster Morris. The tour was to last nearly two years. They also released the Phorward mini album, a genre-defining release in the history of the acid house movement. Ambient DJ and underground musician Mixmaster Morris was born in Brighton in 1965 but started his DJ career in 1985 with his Mongolian Hip Hop Show on pirate radio in London. ... Phorward was a 1989 album by the Scottish band The Shamen, which was billed as a mini album because the original vinyl release had only 6 tracks. ... A yellow smiley face is considered the emblem of Acid House. ...

1990s

Their third album, En-Tact, was released in 1990, and it spawned the hit singles "Move Any Mountain (Progen '91)", "Hyperreal" and "Make It Mine". Also notable was the appearance of rapper and DJ Mr. C (real name Richard West). The transformation into a successful rave act was complete. Mr. ... Rave music consists of forms of electronic music for dancing that are associated with the rave scene. ...

In May 1991, The Shamen headed to Tenerife to film a video for Move Any Mountain. On May 23, Sinnott drowned in an accident off coast of La Gomera. Colin Angus later said: "When it first happened, I was still reeling from the shock of Will's completely unexpected and tragic death, and I couldn't think about the Shamen at all, couldn't see how anything could continue. But as I came to terms with it and thought about the situation I realized that what the Shamen's about was positivity and that positivity is like the spirit of the music and positivity acknowledges the need for change. So for those reasons I elected to carry on and also I knew that the name Shamen really meant a lot to Will and that was one of the main attractions for joining the band for him."^[1] Flag of Tenerife Tenerife, a Spanish island, is the largest of the seven Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa. ... Move Any Mountain was a single performed by The Shamen. ... May 23 is the 143rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (144th in leap years). ... La Gomera is the second smallest island of the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa. ...

With Mr C now a full member of The Shamen, and Jhelisa Anderson providing guest vocals, the Boss Drum album followed in 1992. Boss Drum featured a noted spoken-word collaboration, "Re:Evolution" with Terence McKenna, and The Shamen's biggest and most controversial hit: "Ebeneezer Goode". "Ebeneezer Goode" was accused of promoting drug use owing to the refrain "Ezer Goode, Ezer Goode" - homophonic with "E's are good" ("E" being slang for the dance drug Ecstasy) - and to double entendre drug references throughout the song. This echoed similar references in previous songs such as "Synergy"'s "M D M A-zing... we are together in ecstasy". Despite - or maybe because of - the subsequent storm of publicity, the song stayed at the top of the UK charts for 4 weeks. Boss Drum was The Shamens 1992 album and featured their controversial hit Ebeneezer Goode. Track Listing Boss Drum L.S.I.: Love Sex Intelligence Space Time Librae Solidi Denari Ebeneezer Goode Beatmasters Mix Comin On Phorever People Fatman Scientas Re:evolution Boss Dub Phorever Dub Categories: Album stubs | The... Terence Kemp McKenna (November 16, 1946 â€“ April 3, 2000) was a writer and philosopher. ... Ebeneezer Goode is a song by British electronic music group The Shamen, which became their biggest hit when released as a single in October 1992. ... MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine), most commonly known by the street names ecstasy or XTC (for more names see the full list), is a synthetic entactogen of the phenethylamine family, whose primary effect is believed to be the stimulation of secretion as well as inhibition of re-uptake of large amounts... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Although the single was a commercial hit, it was considered a 'novelty record' and severely impacted on the 'underground' credibility of the band. Subsequent singles such as "Boss Drum" and "Phorever People" were chart hits, but some long term fans believed they paled in comparison to earlier singles.^{[citation needed]} As Terence McKenna observed, "Nothing ruins you for the underground like success. So when Boss Drum went double platinum, they were obviously 'establishment'... I've talked to Colin about this, and he agrees. It would have been wonderful to hit it big at 23. At 35 it becomes a pain in the ass, and you just have to manage the money and the image."^[2] Terence Kemp McKenna (November 16, 1946 â€“ April 3, 2000) was a writer and philosopher. ...

However, The Shamen's new mainstream popularity enabled them to release an unusually large number of remix singles, EPs, and LPs during the Boss Drum era, including the "Face EP", the "S.O.S. EP", and the On Air and Different Drum albums. On Air featured a series of popular tracks from En-Tact and Boss Drum as performed live on BBC radio; Different Drum was a remix album containing alternate versions of every track from Boss Drum. The tracks "Boss Drum", "L.S.I. - Love Sex Intelligence", "Phorever People", "Ebeneezer Goode", and "Re:Evolution" were all released as singles in their own right.

Axis Mutatis in 1995, with new vocalist Victoria Wilson James replacing Jhelisa Anderson, did not make as much of an impact. Early special editions of this album featured a bonus disk, Arbor Bona Arbor Mala, a bizarre ambient album. The Shamen continued recording into the late 1990s, releasing two additional LPs with an increasingly experimental bent. Their penultimate studio album, the instrumental Hempton Manor, followed an acrimonious split with their label One Little Indian. It is alleged to have been recorded in seven days to conclude the recording contract with One Little Indian, and the first letter of each track spell out "Fuck Birket", referring to label founder Derek Birket, who wanted the group to move back into more commercial territory. UV, in 1999, was their last album. UV was released independently and marked a return to form with both modern techno production and classic Shamen song structures. Mr C. has since continued as an inspiring house music DJ and become a successful night-club owner. Axis Mutatis is a music album by electronic artists The Shamen which was released in 1995. ... Hempton Manor is the sixth studio album by The Shamen, released in September 1996. ... One Little Indian Records is a record label set up by Derek Birkett (former bass player of Flux Of Pink Indians) and Sue Birkett in 1985, along with Tim Kelly (formar guitar player of Flux Of Pink Indians). ... Fusing breakbeat-techno and drum n bass, UV was The Shamens final studio album. ... This article includes a list of works cited but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ... DJ or dj may stand for Disc jockey, dinner jacket The DeadJournal website, or Djibouti. ...

Band members

Discography

Contents

History

1980s

1990s

Band members

Discography

See also

External links

References

Contents

History GA_googleFillSlot("encyclopedia_square");

1980s

1990s

Band members

Discography

See also

External links

References

History