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The Shamen

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If you are looking for the type of healer, see Shaman. If you are looking for the other band with a similar name, see Shaaman.

The Shamen were an innovative, experimental dance act that was at its most active during the early and mid-1990s. Initially formed in Aberdeen, Scotland by Colin Angus (b. 24th August, 1961), Derek McKenzie (b. 27th February, 1964), Keith McKenzie (b. 30th August, 1961) and Peter Stephenson (b. 1st March, 1962) in the 1980s as a psychedelic-influenced indie rock act, they debuted with the 1987 album Drop. Released in June, Drop evinced the Shamen's love of 60s psychedelia, with influences from the Byrds and Love, and even echoes of Echo & The Bunnymen, especially Derek McKenzie's Ian McCulloch-sounding vocals on some tracks.

By mid-1987, main man Angus was discovering the sounds of early house music pioneers such as S-Express and MARRS and increasing his knowledge of the latest studio gadgetry. By September 1987, the Shamen were applying these techniques to their own music, mixing rock guitar, hip-hop rhythms and sampled radio dvoices to create the prototype rock-dance sound which was to prove so influential to groups like Pop Will Eat Itself, Jesus Jones, EMF and Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine. However, the newfound sound proved too radical for co-founder and vocalist Derek McKenzie, who the left the band in late '87 to study at university. The Shamen were, suddenly, one crucial player short. Help was at hand in the rangy, charismatic form of Will Sinnott (b. 23rd December, 1960), who joined the group in October 1987, on bass, freeing up Colin Angus to handle vocal and guitar chores.

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, whose 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, following the release of the 1988 album, In Gorbachev We Trust, which saw the group further enhancing their sound.

Angus and Sinnott relocated to the capital the same year, allowing them to start afresh, plunging headfirst into this exotic new world of revolutionary music and mind-expanding drugs.

By the time their third album, En Tact, was released in 1990, they had recruited rapper and DJ Mr C. (real name Richard West), and had completed the transformation into a successful rave act. However, Sinnott tragically drowned in an accident off the coast of Tenerife during the filming of the video for a remix of Move Any Mountain, but after encouragement Angus and West decided to continue the Shamen. En Tact is perhaps their most popular album, spawning several hit singles such as "Move Any Mountain", "Hyperreal" and "Make It Mine".

Boss Drum followed in 1992. The album featured a noted spoken-word collaboration, "Re:Evolution" with Terence McKenna, and one major, although controversial, hit: "Ebeneezer Goode".

The song was accused of promoting drug use due to the refrain Ezer Goode, Ezer Goode -- implying the phrase 'E's are good ('E' being slang for the dance drug Ecstasy, aka MDMA) -- and due to similar double-entendre drug references throughout the song. The subsequent storm of publicity helped place the song at the top of the UK charts for 4 weeks (albeit, being no. 1 in the BBC's National Drugs Awareness Week). This echoes similar references in previous songs such as Synergy's "M D M A-zing... we are together in ecstasy".

It was the success of Ebeneezer Goode that proved to be the band's undoing - although the single was a commercial hit, it decimated the credibility of the band and reduced them to novelty status in the UK. Subsequent singles like Boss Drum and Phorever People were chart hits, but paled in comparison to earlier efforts.

Axis Mutatis in 1995 did not make as much of an impact in the charts. 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 several LPs with an increasingly experimental bent. Their penultimate studio album, "Hempton Manor", followed an acrimonious split with their label One Little Indian. The first letter of each track spell out "Fuck Birket", referring to label founder Derek Birket, who wanted the group to move into more commercial territory. Releasing their final album UV in 1999, they have now split. Mr C. has since become a moderately successful House music DJ.

Band Members

Singles

Albums

Compilations

Videos

  • Phorever People (directed by richard heslop)
  • Boss Drum (directed by richard heslop)
  • Ebeneezer Goode (directed by richard heslop)
  • L.S.I.: Love Sex Intelligence (directed by mathew glamorre)
  • Make it Mine live usa version (directed by eric massey + h. bomb)
  • Move Any Mountain - Progen '91 (directed by mathew glamorre)
  • Hyperreal (directed by mathew glamore)
  • Make it Mine (directed by chris craig + jim wilson)
  • Pro>Gen (directed by bernard morales)
  • Omega Amigo (directed by chris craig + jim wilson)
  • Destination Eschaton hardfloor edit (director unknown)
  • Heal (the Separation) (director unknown)
  • Comin' On (director unknown)
  • Transamazonia (director unknown)


See also

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