Shook is part of new swathe of artists who are breathing new life into disco-funk with the help of a healthy sprinkle of electro, If you like Breakbot, Kavinsky and Show Your Shoe then you’re going to love Shook.
He has been on our radar for about a year now after he sent over his remix of Pheonix’s ‘Litzomania’, which saw heavy support from fellow funk fusion maestro Breakbot,
He scales the charts of Hype Machine pretty much every time he drops some new material. And we’d expect his ‘Glow’ EP to do the same.
His last remix for Sting’s daughter I Blame Coco went straight in the popular hype machine chart with a top 5 finish.
Well this week he’s releasing his ‘The Glow’ EP which was only available as a special vinyl collectors edition which includes 5 original tracks made from 2009 to 2010. It’s the first time we’ve heard original tracks from him as a lot of his previous works have been amazing remixes which can be listened to and downloaded in many cases at his bulging Soundcloud page.
He’s decided to make the EP a digital release through bandcamp, and more impressively he decided to allow you lovely readers to download the whole package at a price of your choice. Brave we know, but were sure that his fans won’t take liberties; we’ve even bought the whole thing for a couple of euros – and we expect you to do the same.
He is in the process of finishing off his next EP which were promised will be out “very soon” and we’ve also been told that he’s locking himself away and working on a debut album. Which we for one can’t wait to hear.
The opening track ‘1986’ is a synth drenched homage to 80’s funk and disco with lashing of 21st century electro goodness. It ends up sounding like the sort of track Kavinsky would be proud of, and we’re reliably informed the Kav’s is a big fan of Mr Shook.
Next up we have the ‘Flash’, which shows off his more electro pop side, again it sounds sublime. Deep rolling bass lines combine with some playful, yet complex, synths to make a real stand out track.
Moving on ‘Something About You’ takes a rather large dollop of Daft Punk’s ‘Something About Us’, as inspiration, which of course means it is amazing.
The title track ‘The Glow’ is the banger of the bunch and is a lot harder than the rest but just shows you that he isn’t just a one-trick pony, again this track blew us away, and could well be our favourite – a funk/electro work-out a la Justice style.
And to finish off we have the dramatic synth laden ‘Missing With Out You’ the opening synth hook is one of the finest we’ve heard this year and is the sort of track that grabs you from start to finish.
We can’t remember that last time we heard an EP as good as this. All 5 tracks are amazing. And you’d be fool not to pick up the release and show some support to one of the most exciting producers around at the moment.
We got in touch with Dutch funk maverick to ask whether he would mind if we gave one of the tracks away to get the ball rolling and he said we could choose any of the tracks. We’ve decided to go for ‘Flash’ – you can listen to the entire release at his bandcamp page and remember if you really like the cut of his gib make sure you pay some money, it’s only fair, and if you don’t karma will hunt you down if your being a scrooge. You have been warned.
HBF Rating 10/10
Shook – Flash
[podcast]http://www.mediafire.com/file/cyvpnt249hraw1p/Shook%20-%20The%20Glow%20EP%20-%2002%20Flash.mp3[/podcast]
Download here.
Listen to the release in full here http://shook.bandcamp.com
Get Social with Shook here.
facebook.com/shookshookshook
soundcloud.com/shookshookshook
www.shookmusic.com
