Simon Shackleton’s new mixtape is his first in over two years and if you’re a lover of deep and emotive house and broken beat music, you’ll love what he’s put together for you here. Featuring a lovingly curated selection of current favourites, a few from further back in time and a couple of brand new ones from himself, Simon’s new mixtape is one you will find yourself wanting to aimlessly wander through time and time again. The tracklist for this one can be found at the bottom of the page.
The deeper and more emotive side of electronica is not just where Simon is at with the music he’s listening to these days, but it’s where he is at with his production work also and the two new tracks are very much in that vein. The first is a cinematic mix of a newly composed piece of piano-led music that opens the mixtape. With an accompaniment of warm strings, Oplot cleanses the mind leaving you feeling calm and ready for the epic journey ahead. The penultimate track on Simon’s mixtape, Traumstaat, is the second of his new tracks. Out now on the mightily impressive and huge Anjunadeep 13 compilation, Traumstaat is a breathtaking and dreamy slice of broken beat electronica that leads you off down a path of calm and keeps you walking until all is well again, which in large part is down to the lush melodies, the stunning strings and immaculate production. The version on the compilation is a remix from Anjunadeep bosses Jody Wisternoff and James Grant who add soft synths and rhythmic drumbeat to the beautiful backdrop and you can have a listen to that remix here:
As well as working on new music, Simon has also been busy over on his Spotify and YouTube pages of late. On his Spotify page, he updates a lovingly curated playlist full of emotive electronica every month and if you want to have a dig through the soul-nourishing sounds uncovered there and subscribe to his page, you can do so by Clicking Here.
Over on YouTube, Simon has two accounts you’ll be very interested in if the music you’ve heard so far is rockin’ your world. His personal one features music from all of his projects and aliases over the last 25 years, which includes music under his Elite Force, Lunatic Calm and Zodiac Cartel guises as well as some of his more recent lush electronica tracks under his own name. There are also a handful of very handy and in-depth music production tutorials videos on there too which leads us nicely onto his second page Mixing Mastering Mentoring. There you will find even more tutorials on mixing and mastering (funnily enough) plus production walkthroughs of some of his own tracks he has released over the years and tips and techniques for those using Ableton. Another exciting development on this particular page is the arrival of a new series titled Decoded. This series will see Simon dissect well-known tracks to figure out how the component parts come together to make it the special piece of music it is.
The series kicks off with an in-depth look at Bicep’s incredible Glue, so go make a cuppa, get comfy and get to know how this masterpiece was made:
Links for Simon Shackleton :
Soundcloud / Facebook / Website / Bandcamp / YouTube / Twitter
Tracklist
01 Simon Shackleton, Objekt22 – Oplot (Cinematic Mix)
02 Moderat – Seamonkey
03 Âme – And End
04 German Bigante – 30 Degrees
05 Arden (AU) – Vision
06 Rafael Mader – Fading Still
07 Deenara – Arcanum
08 Subjective – Dassai Menace
09 Karmakind – Freaks (Mollono Bass Remix)
10 Tibasko – Icaro (Juno Mamba Remix)
11 Absolute – Fauna (Extended Mix)
12 Marco Resmann Paji – Rebirth (Daniel Bortz Remix)
13 Jon Gurd – After It All
14 Maceo Plex – Mutant Romance
15 Uone & Markey feat. Azaria Byrne – Playing in Shadows
16 Krust – Hegel Dialect (UNKLE Reconstruction)
17 Bonobo – Otomo (featuring O’Flynn)
18 Rival Consoles – Not Really
19 Simon Shackleton – Traumstaat (Extended Mix)
20 James ID – What I Should Have Said
