the shamen - in gorbachev we trust, phorward,entact,axix mutatis, hempton manor
well as you can tell i liked the shamen. i liked the origins as a guitar band playing with samples/sequencers, 'gorbachev' sounds a little dated now - but at the time this was strectching the boundaries, there are some great tracks though, phorward really set the path for shamen - dropped the guitars almost completely and went nuts with sequences/samples this was released at the time that the 'acid' sound was dominating the clubs and this ep was highly influenced by this. next came the 'classic' release - entact (uk version). a great cross-over cd. pop/dub/trance/ambient/psychadelic fusion with many familiar names appearing here (orbital mixes/jah wobble bass/mr c raps !) then they kind of lost their way - went too pop for many. but the axis mutatis (ltd double cd) is amazing. trancey pop with a housey feel. some songs are amazingly catchy but not in an annoying ebeneezer good way ! the extra disc is pure ambient trance. the double release is highly recommended. next came hempton manor. different in that its vocal-free. it was a low profile release (contractual obligation??) and tried to fuse jungle-type rythms to the shamen sound. ok but not stunning.
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