We ask ourselves: What’s wrong with Shantel? And discover the next metamorphosis of this fascinating artist and producer. In the nineties, he was perhaps the most sought-after German downbeat act, a master and connoisseur in blending exotic sounds with electronica. In the early years of the new millennium, he almost single-handedly invented a new musical genre that gained worldwide reach and spawned legions of imitators. His most successful album to date, “Disko Partizani,” was featured in the top 20 of many European charts, spent weeks at number 1 in the Turkish charts, and achieved platinum status across Southeast Europe. He composed film scores for Fatih Akin and Sasha Baron Cohen, performed at the Cannes Film Festival, and was one of the first German musicians at the legendary English Glastonbury Festival, in Montreux (under the watchful eyes of the visibly impressed colleagues Prince & Quincy Jones), at the Milano Fashion Week, the Cervantino Festival in Mexico, the Tim Festival in Rio de Janeiro (as co-headliner with Daft Punk and the Beastie Boys), and at all major festivals around the world. After many years of persistent grassroots work in Europe, Shantel has achieved well-deserved international prominence, and with over 1,000 shows played, he guarantees a live spectacle of the absolute highest caliber with his Bucovina Club Orkestar, ensuring a dreamlike communication with his audience. A position where he could actually rest comfortably and continue as is. And now we hold the next of his transformations in our hands and wonder how to categorize this again? Actually, it’s quite simple: Shantel creates a hybrid, bringing together underground, music history, and thus also social history, swirling them with his creative energy, and at the end of the process, the album reflects his personal treasure trove of experiences, wandering, as he himself says, “between pop culture, high culture, and street credibility.” Music history, specifically the early history of popular music that found international dissemination, was also the theme of the elaborately produced and highly praised by Martin Scorsese production “Kosher Nostra – Jewish Gangsters’ Greatest Hits,” a unique time travel into the music clubs, revue theaters, and gaming casinos from the 1920s to the 1960s.
While his last albums were conceptually designed producer albums, “Anarchy & Romance” is his first artist album that places the musician at the center. Previously, basses and beats were constructed with the clear goal of reaching the dance floors; he once again dares to create his own world away from the usual routes and attempts a completely new approach, turning the clock back to zero: Shantel’s new sound starts from the live situation, is more open, riskier, rougher, noisier - in a word, more colorful. The electronics are no longer in the foreground, but rather an organic, dirty garage band sound. Shantel writes and sings all the pieces himself, plays guitar and many other instruments, and uses no samples (except for one, but more on that later). Song ideas were developed quite randomly during travels or long sessions in hotel rooms. Alongside the tight rhythmic structure, the emphasis is clearly on melodies and harmonies – the energy level remains high: Whipping guitars, the pig organ (here an old Fender Rhodes piano from the 70s) howls, the boogie is broken down into syncopations, a disco number is fueled by a flamenco-rock guitar, minimalist shuffle beats and a pinch of rockabilly ensure the hedonistic departure. So this is not a departure from the Shantel we know, but “Logical Progression.” Oriental scales and harmonies from the Middle East with reminiscences of the Smyrna sound, the birthplace of bluesy rembetiko, flash through. When the child of 1968 looks back at the late 50s and early 60s, it is a view through a prism. An example of this is his reinterpretation of the Finnish tango hit “Letkis – A Touch Of Beauty” – here is also the only used sample hidden. However, the Sixties flavor is repeatedly broken and re-examined – otherwise it wouldn’t be a Shantel production!
The secret top star of the recordings is ONE analog microphone! More precisely: the legendary tube-powered ribbon microphone RCA 44 from AEA with its unadulterated spatiality. It builds more pressure and therefore requires the highest discipline when playing; the drums were also recorded only with this microphone (so no separate tracks). The guitar sound is produced by an original Vox guitar amplifier from the 60s. The effects: the famous Fulltone Echoplex tape echo and a spring reverb. This conservative approach of using only minimal technology is almost revolutionary and contributes significantly to the sound of “Anarchy & Romance.” The fitting studio vibrations were obtained in the legendary and long-established Berlin Hansa Studios. A bit of name-dropping? OK, Iggy Pop, David Bowie, Depeche Mode, Einstürzende Neubauten, Falco, Nick Cave - they all recorded in the studio with a view of the wall.
This time, guests include Justin Adams, who is currently the right hand and guitarist of Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin), as the two are once again making music history with the band “The Sensational Space Shifters”; Cherilyn MacNeil and Emma Greenfield from the neo-folk band “Dear Reader,” who contributed the title song for the acclaimed film “Oh Boy”; bass legend Ken Taylor; and string players from the Junge Philharmonie Frankfurt am Main.
For the release of “Anarchy & Romance,” the strictly limited “ALRIGHT MAGAZIN” published by Shantel will be released – a compendium for politics, music, art & lifestyle, featuring contributions about the famous Frankfurt red-light district and its beat clubs of the 50s and 60s, a contemporary witness report about Hanau in the 60s and how punk rock was accidentally invented, an essay on the history of rock’n’roll in Germany and how Indonesian rock bands provided development aid, a photo series by Horst A. Friedrichs on the theme “The Kiez is alright” so I wasted my youth.
Let’s give Shantel the last word: “A diamond gives me nothing; only in a dung heap do wondrous creatures thrive! In a time of hyper-accelerated trends and a globalized world, where musical genres melt together so that their origins are no longer recognizable, I want to turn conservative pop and rock clichés on their head, revolutionarily. I am concerned with a general, critical attitude towards life, detached from genres or styles. It has nothing to do with fashion, hype, or hipness; it is completely out, completely out of date, it is a bit vintage and sentimental but still the musical future and simply unfathomable. Songs, ballads & party burners meet the sound of the wild sixties, rock’n’roll and future funk, my beloved Rickenbacker guitars, a crashing drum set, and a Fender Rhodes piano rock with the brass players of my band as if it were the last day of human history...”
Album info
SHANTEL
Anarchy & Romance
Catalog No. AY CD 31 (EAN 4250536400089)
Vinyl / CD / App & Download Release Date 18.10.
ESSAY RECORDINGS / Indigo
Shantel On tour
13.11.2013: Wuppertal - TBA
14.11.2013: Aachen - TBA
15.11.2013: Ingolstadt - TBA
16.11.2013: AT-Vienna - ORF SENDESAAL FM4 STUDIO SESSION
19.11.2013: Kassel - Schlachthof
26.11.2013: Hamburg - Mojo Club
28.11.2013: Berlin - TBA
29.11.2013: Münster - Skaters Palace
03.12.2013: CH-Basel - TBA
04.12.2013: CH-Bern - Bierhübeli
05.12.2013: CH-Winterthur - Salzhaus
06.12.2013: CH-Nyon - TBA
07.12.2013: Munich - Muffathalle
08.12.2013: Constance - Kulturladen
09.12.2013: Heidelberg - Halle 02
10.12.2013: Frankfurt - Batschkapp
14.12.2013: Stuttgart - Wagenhallen
15.12.2013: AT-St. Pölten - Cinema Paradiso
17.12.2013: AT-Linz - Posthof
18.12.2013: AT-Graz - TBA
19.12.2013: AT-Vienna - WUK
