the sham men

(via Alex Petridis)


They did some good stuff, though, The Shamen - I enjoyed them around En-Tact







Credit where it's due - more than any of the other indie-dance crossover artists of that era, they managed to master the new musical language - and they did it by themselves. (Primal Scream needed Andy Weatherall's help).

Almost by chance - without intent, certainly -  I have seen The Shamen play live as many times - possibly more times - than any other band I can think of.

They were on a lot of bills in the late Eighties when they were pure psychedelic revivalists: Op Art imagery, liquid lightshow projections,  phased and flanged guitars, Electric Prunes-y kinda vibes, fey monastic vocals. They were sorta kinda fellow-travelers with C86, and in a different way, with the Loop tendency - but slightly too professional and clean sounding.

Closer to Porcupine Tree than Spacemen 3.





Saw them once in their uneasy transitional stage going from acid-rock to acid-house, when the results were bit clumpy and didactic.



And then a couple of times during the full-blown techno-rave stage.

Interviewed them too, for a piece that never came out. What struck me was the seriousness, even piousness, with which they talked about psychedelics as a tool of consciousness-elevation.

Then they became pop stars, with this imperishable bit of period kitsch.



Oh dear




Dearie me

"who ever heard of a snozzberry?!"

another one that samples "Lickable Wallpaper"




more wonkatechno



always felt there was something oompa-loompa ish about this Marshall Masters stomper

burn kali weed in a rizla (the return)

talked before about the tune on my old pirate tapes that goes "when i was a yout i used to burn kali weed in a rizla" - or "collie weed" as i thought of it, for some reason

never could quite find the track that precisely fit my memory of the tune

then this came up on an old skool group on Fbook.



Well that's not the track I am thinking of at all - it was much more rootsical proto-jungle in vibe

Sourced in this of course




Even this one seems a bit too frantic to match my memory




Was it this one (once it gets past the italo pianos)?




Here's another Pablo Gad / "Hard Times" based tune



And another



And another by the same artist (plus remixer)



A very high profile one  - overshadowed by the Crazy Arthur sample




"And they don't call it a continuum for nuttin' folks" - a UK garage version!



Loads more either adjacent to the nuum (UK hip hop, happy hardcore) or somewhere else altogether





flipside to that tune is thematically linked




this was the big surprise on Whosampled.com




and this one - i'm not sure what category this falls in - breakstep? nu skool breaks?  Ed Solo was a UKG producer right -



surprisingly good tune - thick sound, crispy and nimble break - and the whole vocal lick is used, not just the first line, so the listener gets to learn about the grown-up way to ingest your marijuana

Not that I'm clear exactly what a chalwa (?) is to be honest

remix by Freq Nasty which name rings a nu skool breaksy bell



I note with apprehension that Ed Solo later perpetrated "a Dubstep remix of Apollo Two - Return To Atlantis / Atlantis (I Need You) (LTJ Bukem Remix)" - perhaps it's for the better that's not actually on YouTube.

and with Deekline also did retro-jungle covers of "Ghost Town" b "On A Ragga Tip / Walk and Skank"