Shadow Dancer are creators of convulsive, beat-propelled electro-synth psychosis that has long-since left a combustible trail of sweat, sex and dancefloor euphoria snaking through clubs across the globe.
Liverpool-born brothers Paul and Alan Farrier have been writing music together since childhood, and were initially driven by a love of artists including Kraftwerk, Human League, Pet Shop Boys and Underground Resistance to equip themselves with synthesizers rather than guitars. Thus armed, they immersed themselves in the life-changing sounds emerging from Detroit and Chicago in the late-Eighties, drew on the ingenuity of the European techno scene, and, with the aid of a studio built up from second-hand equipment, set about channelling those influences into the creation of their own singular sonic landscapes.
By the Nineties, they found themselves gravitating towards Manchester, seduced by the citys celebrated legacy then perpetuated by club nights such as Bugged Out!, Versivo, Robodisco and, of course, the incomparable Hacienda. Performing under the name Pinback, they built a reputation on well-received sets in bars in the greater Manchester area, working up to a headline live set as part of the 2001 Manchester Music Festival.
After a three-year hiatus brought about by damaged equipment and the brothers' commitment to their day jobs, Shadow Dancer came into being. They compiled two self-released retrospective digital EPs, Machine Code and 80somethings, comprised of material recorded between 1999 and 2002, and released a third EP, DirtBox, on the New York-based The Other Cosmos label.
Eventually approached by Boysnoize Records to release what became the Shadow Dancer EP in July 2007, they found their audience rapidly expanding thanks to the symphonic beats of club hits like 'Soap' and 'Cowbois' regularly appearing in the sets of such luminaries as Soulwax, Erol Alkan, 2 Many DJs, DJ Feadz, Adam Freeland and Busy P Shadow Dancer had emerged as a name to drop and a force to be reckoned with. They have subsequently remixed everyone from The Whip to Chromeo, and their tracks have featured on compilations including Bugged Out's Suck My Deck, Digitalism's Kitsune Tabloid, and Adam Freeland's Two Hours To Jupiter.
Their mutually beneficial relationship with Boysnoize has continued for a further two EPs Cowbois and Soap and has reached its current peak with the impending release of debut album Golden Traxe, itself the culmination of nearly two decades worth of hard graft, dedication and unwavering passion, which makes no secret of the brothers affinity for a kaleidoscopic melting pot of influences, everything from electronica to techno to acid and house is referenced.
Golden Traxe collects thirteen brain-scrambling, pupil-widening assaults on the senses onto one enviably constructed LP. 'Drive Time' re-imagines the possibilities of electronic music. Tracks like 'Soap' and 'Poke' come alive with hypnotic beats destined to alter the chemistry of anyone within earshot, while 'Infinite Lies' and 'The Bad Thing' evoke orgiastic speaker-stack cacophonies that will tame even the most jaded of club-land hedonists. Golden Traxe bristles with an uninhibited love of life on the dancefloor, a wildly varied exercise in transcendent techno titillation and soul-bruisingly acute house throbs.
Described by I-DJ Magazine as "a fucked-up, futuristic Justice", and praised by I Love Neon for their "forward thinking production", Shadow Dancers assault on the worlds dancefloors has continued unabated since their debut on the Soulwax Nite Versions Tour, with DJ sets at Bugged Out! and Dollop, and performances alongside the likes of D.I.M., Sinden, Surkin and A-Trak amongst many others. Shadow Dancer is a name undoubtedly destined to become gospel.
www.myspace.com/homeofshadowdancer
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Shadow Dancer 'Golden Traxe' - Released 2nd March on Boysnoize Records
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