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Shamen News |
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11/9/98 - Shamen to "Shift" The Shamen, who have served their time since '86, morphing through a variety of manifestations oscillating betwixt shadowy Underground and Pop incandescence (illuminating the charts with 10 top 20 hits including a No. 1, shifting over 4 million units worldwide, creating the original mobile acid-party "Synergy" and pioneering the musical colonisation of cyberspace with some of the first releases and performances on the Web) are now set to dematerialise. The last and best LP "UV" is due on Oct 19th. Now is '98, more than a decade on, and Richard (Mr C) is industrious as ever in his new roles of club kingpin,label magnate and restaurateur, while Colin is leisurely engaged in phytoalchymical research and producing eco-fem group "Green Hareem", and featured vocalist Victoria Wilson James has been working with Gerry Deveax, and pursuing her solo career. Although poised to depart 3rd Level Density (a process which they have been engineering since escaping the gravity of OLI, who remixed and re-re-released Move any Mountain without contractually required Shamanic sanction) the band insist they will continue to collaborate, via their higher aspects, in the 4th Dimension. However, none of this material will be given further terrestrial release, because (in Colin's inimitable words). "The music industry, like most earthly endeavours, has succumbed to the mediocre minions of marketing whose bland homogenising influence has become unavoidable. In order to transcend the inexorably monotonous machinations of the Men in Grey, the Shamen are preparing to Shift." Or, put another way, "It's the End of an Ear (sic), so Enuff Wax Already!" 11/9/98 - UV Over the past 13 years of their illustrious career the Shamen have persistently challenged musical concepts and categories with their distinctive cocktail of psychedelic tek-house, breakbeats and pop vocals. UV is no exception to this rule. Highly audible (with vocals again provided by Victoria Wilson James), but ultimately experimental, this album is an astronomers chart from which their ongoing musical voyage can be plotted. With their sights set firmly in the future UV sees the Shamen gliding close to 'Entact' airspace before heading off into the unknown once more. UV meaning Ultra Vibration, UFO Vehicle, Unum Valedictum, Ultimate Voyage? Whatever the enigmatic initials may mysteriously signify, what is certain is that this latest opus represents the most metatronic musical merkaba yet to emanate from The Shamen, which quite naturally manifests in the form of a sleek, silvery UV disc. When laser-scanned and rotating, the UV disc produces sonic energy vibrations across the full frequency spectrum. Persons absorbing this radiant energy via acoustic sensory input may experience a localized inversion of their personal gravity, resulting in increased levity, euphoria, hilarity, transcen-dance, feelings of floating or flying and even exiting the third dimension altogether. These entertaining effects make the UV disc a very convenient form of self-propulsion for those seeking escape from the dreary seriousness of the quotidian situation. In a new clear fusion of electro-harmonics, vocal waveforms, techno-magnetics and sub-bass gravitations, the Shamen have engineered a millenarian metamusical module with advanced performance capabilities. Powered by unearthly lyrical, melodic and rhythmic energies, the UV disc provides the perfect soundtrack for Planetary Shifting, and makes for ideal listening on long journeys spent gazing out of the saucer window. With UV, the Shamen have finally created their own beamship, so where in the multiverse they will travel to after this is anyones guess... Tracklisting: Mercury, Universal 187 B.P. Metamix (Minor), Palen-k, Beamship - Brief Sighting, I Do, Pop, Universal (1999 Dance vocal), Sativa '98, Serpent, U-Nations (Mr C Club Mix), Marca Huasi, Sfynx (Tech Itch Mix), Metatron Release Date: 19/10/98 18/8/98 - Shamen's New Single Makes a Stand Against Chart Compilers On the 21st of September, The Shamen, one of Britain's most successful and established dance bands release "Universal" taken from their forthcoming LP "UV". With Universal the Shamen are charting the high frontiers of the united states of existence (the One place where William Blake meets Bill Hicks) synthesising a radical ultravision of impending hyperdimensional resonance to subvert the orthodox paradigm, as energised frequencies generate radiant waveforms which shift reality's overtones toward some future harmonic attractor. The single is available in various mixes by 1999 with Mathew Roberts Sharp, 187 Lockdown and Mr C. The single will be released in a limited numbered edition of three formats - CD and 12" & 12" doublepack, and will not meet the new national chart eligibility criteria, because those criteria were introduced to penalise independent label dance bands and their fans at the expense of major label rock bands. This has been done by creating a separate 12" chart "ghetto" for dance music that does not count towards the national charts. The Shamen consider it ridiculous that the national chart compilers have limited the running time of chart eligible singles to 20 minutes (and consequently the amount of mixes that punters and DJ's can get), and are offended that major labels manipulate the charts at will via the charts advisory panel, because they don't want to compete with dance labels who are able to give the public what they want. The Shamen website http://www.nemeton.com - responsible for the first UK single & LP releases on the Web three years ago - will also be making available exclusive mixes of the single, new screensavers and interactive cover art from release date onwards. Release Date: 21September 1998. Catalog Number: Moksha 03CD & Moksha 03T & Moksha 03TC. Distribution: Pinnacle. |
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