Shakedown

Why look for a partnership on the other side of the world when two perfectly complementary personalities are living under the same roof? Mandrax and Seb K asked themselves this question and the answer was not long in coming: they decided to pool their respective assets and form Shakedown together!

These two wizards of sound have known each other for a long time… mainly because they are brothers! Growing up together in the seventies in Lausanne, music quickly became their great obsession. Seb K listened to James Brown and Grandmaster Flash, while his big brother was a fan of The Clash and Mantronix.

In 1986, Mandrax decided to go to England and to put it into his own word, “after a New Order concert, I caught a set by Mike Pickering, the Hacienda DJ. It was a complete revelation. When I got back to Switzerland, I got seriously into house.”

Soon, Mandrax gained international recognition as a DJ and toured Europe non-stop. In 1992, he decided to travel to New York for a change of air and devote himself completely to electronic music. There, he co-founded the house label Liquid Groove then Boombastic with cult producer Mike Delgado.

Seb K headed for England. He worked in a studio in 1993 and got into production. “When I came back to Lausanne in 1996, I founded the Bel Air Project with Alex Attias. It was a jazzy project, experimental and a bit crazy!” He quickly gained a name among his peers as a talented writer and producer.

His Bel Air Project even drew compliments from Gilles Peterson, the great guru of the Talkin’ Loud label!

A few nights, labels and maxis later, the brothers became a reference on the electronic scene. Now they had to put the finishing touches to this reputation with a real album and it was as SHAKEDOWN that the two artists united their gifts: musical expertise, a talent for manipulating sound, an innate sense of rhythm and melodious charisma were put through the magic shaker… The result is an album of stimulating, inspired electronic groove where house becomes unpredictable (“Wonder Why”), soul catches fire (“At Night”), electro engulfs (“You Think you Know”) and funk is shaken up (“Get Down”). ‘The sound is unstoppable: SHAKEDOWN has found the right mix to reconcile listener-friendliness with futurism’. (Benoit Sabatier)

PS: He is a living legend. He has worked with James Brown, Keith Richards, George Clinton and Herbie Hancock… His name is Bootsy Collins. He was looking for producers and found SHAKEDOWN who co-wrote and produced one of the tracks on his forthcoming album!

The album from SHAKEDOWN is titled ‘You Think You Know’ will be released outside of France in May 2002 through SINE/Naive.

The new single ‘At Night’ international release (ex France) will be from 29th April 2002 was mixes by Mousse T, Alan Braxe, Kid Creme. Having achieved #6 in the UK singles chart, the buzz and hype on this single around Europe is amazing. In Germany it has already appeared on the DJ playlist chart, and is on the dance charts in Belgium, France, Holland and Italy.