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2CD
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AY 038CD
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With this open-minded approach, Shantel is the audible side of a different Germany. He is the first to have injected a cosmopolitan sound into the local pop culture. In his case, migration can be heard and danced to. He plays musical treasures from South-Eastern Europe, the Middle East, or the Mediterranean in a new context, making it possible to experience intuitively the culture it originated in. His method is cultural sampling: taking things out of their context and putting them into a new one. Club culture as a concept of permanent development, not as a museum in which to repeat the same, eternally -- like in Berlin, where thousands of tourists wait in front of Berghain so as to be able to experience the predictable. On the 30th anniversary of Club Guerilla (1997), Shantel opens a new chapter on his never-ending tour under the heading: Shantology: 30 Years of Club Guerilla. Part one of the Shantology trilogy appears in the form of The Bucovina Club Years. The albums will be full of unpublished newly recorded and "well hung" material that will impressively highlight the timeless hit quality of his music. A review? No, more a retrospective look forward. This disco partisan likes things exciting, and is always good for surprises. The double-CD has 34 mixes, songs from an exciting era beginning in the late 1990s and extending to 2007. Keep those peepers pealed for the rest of the trilogy. Features Tropkillaz, Haaksman & Haaksman, Mahala Rai Banda, Fanfare Ciocarlia, Goran Bregovic, Jewish Monkeys, Amsterdam Klezmer Band, Ian Oliver, Binder, Kriegelstein Boban Markovic Orkestar, Friends Of Boban, Taraf De Haidouks, DJ Click Vs. Shantel, Bucovina, Sandy Lopicic Orkestar, Vienna Phil Banda, Baba Zula, Boom Pam, Zdob Si Zdub, Senor Coconut, Dissidenten, and OMFO.
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2LP+CD
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AY 037LP
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Double LP version. Pressed on 180-gram vinyl. Includes CD. "Cosmopolitan, globetrotter, paprika bambaataa, constantly in search of new sounds: Shantel gracefully turns pop-cultural clichés and conventionally-accepted genre-definitions upside-down. When he brings the entire stage to life with his Bucovina Club Orkestar, molding global sounds into compact, anarchic hymns, eclecticism and escapism no longer seem so very far apart. No worries: The Kiez is Alright. Disko Devil Shantel is on the case" --Rémy Kolpa Kopoul. Viva Diaspora is strongly inspired by the creative anarchy of crisis-ridden Athens, Greece. Viva Diaspora has no intention of jumping onto the crossover-and-remix bandwagon. Viva Diaspora is bold, risky, and self-assured; this is how acoustic, traditional, and Mediterranean songs sound today and this is how they can come into their own in a contemporary party context. Viva Diaspora sounds like a road movie -- cinema for the ears -- of a 24-hour trip through Athens, Frankfurt, Paris, Kingston, Brooklyn, Istanbul. Includes collaborations with Areti Ketime and Imam Baildi.
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CD
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AY 037CD
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"Cosmopolitan, globetrotter, paprika bambaataa, constantly in search of new sounds: Shantel gracefully turns pop-cultural clichés and conventionally-accepted genre-definitions upside-down. When he brings the entire stage to life with his Bucovina Club Orkestar, molding global sounds into compact, anarchic hymns, eclecticism and escapism no longer seem so very far apart. No worries: The Kiez is Alright. Disko Devil Shantel is on the case" --Rémy Kolpa Kopoul. Viva Diaspora is strongly inspired by the creative anarchy of crisis-ridden Athens, Greece. Viva Diaspora has no intention of jumping onto the crossover-and-remix bandwagon. Viva Diaspora is bold, risky, and self-assured; this is how acoustic, traditional, and Mediterranean songs sound today and this is how they can come into their own in a contemporary party context. Viva Diaspora sounds like a road movie -- cinema for the ears -- of a 24-hour trip through Athens, Frankfurt, Paris, Kingston, Brooklyn, Istanbul. Includes collaborations with Areti Ketime and Imam Baildi.
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2LP+CD
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AY 031LP
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Limited gatefold double LP version. Comes on 180 gram vinyl and includes a CD copy of the album.
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CD
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AY 031CD
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In the '90s, artist and producer Shantel was arguably the most in-demand downbeat act, a master and connoisseur of exotica/electronica fusion. In the early years of the new millennium he almost singlehandedly invented a new musical genre with global reach that spawned a whole slew of copycats. Now we see him reinvent himself once more and are left wondering where it all fits in. Actually, it's quite simple: Shantel creates a hybrid, bringing together subculture, music history and social history, mixing them with his own creative energy. The end result is an album that reflects his own personal experience and wanders, as he puts it, between pop culture, high culture and street cred. Music history or more precisely the early history of a popular music form that spread internationally, was the thematic focus of the album Kosher Nostra -- Jewish Gangsters' Greatest Hits, an adventurous and ambitious journey through the clubs, cabarets and casinos of the '20s to '60s. Meticulously researched and compiled by Shantel and Oz Almog, the album was highly acclaimed by Martin Scorcese. Whereas his previous albums were conceptually-oriented productions, Anarchy & Romance is his first artist-focused album. His previous albums structured basses and beats with the obvious aim of getting the dancefloor moving. This time, in departing once again from the mainstream to create yet another unique world and a completely new approach, Shantel starts with the live situation to craft a more open sound that is riskier, rougher, rawer -- in short, more colorful. Instead of an emphasis on electronic sounds, it has a more organic, grungy, garage-band feel. Shantel writes and sings all the tracks himself, plays guitar and various other instruments, and uses no samples (with one exception, as described below). He developed the ideas for the songs at random, on his travels or during long hours spent in hotel rooms. In addition to the tight rhythmic structure, the emphasis here is clearly on melodies and harmonies -- with a consistently pumped-up energy level. With frenzied guitar riffs and howling electronic keyboard (in this case a vintage Fender Rhodes piano from the '70s) he deconstructs a boogie into syncopation, fires up a disco number with flamenco rock guitar, and indulges in sheer hedonism with minimalist shuffle beats and a pinch of rockabilly. This is not so much a departure from the Shantel we know, as much as a logical progression. When a child of 1968 casts a glance at the late '50s and early '60s, that period is seen through a prism. One example of this is Shantel's reinterpretation of the fulminant Finnish tango "Letkis - A Touch of Beauty," which is the only track to use a sample. Yet the '60s flavor is constantly fragmented and reworked from a new viewpoint -- otherwise it wouldn't be a Shantel production. Guests on this album are Justin Adams, right hand man and guitarist of Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin) -- the two are currently making music history once more with The Sensational Space Shifters -- Cherilyn MacNeil and Emma Greenfield of neo-folk band Dear Reader, who provided the title-song for the award-winning film Oh Boy, and bass legend Ken Taylor, as well as the string section of the Junge Philharmonie Frankfurt am Main.
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2LP
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AY 015LP
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2014 repress. Limited edition vinyl: two 180 gram vinyl 12"s, cover printed on high quality 350 gram cardboard. Renowned German DJ/producer Stefan Hantel, aka Shantel from Frankfurt/Main, has firmly established himself as an all-around, world-class electronica producer. After pioneering the concept of Balkan clubbing with his now legendary Bucovina Club parties and albums, Shantel moves on to the next level and releases Disko Partizani (his first solo album in seven years), which lays the foundations for an innovative new brand of pop music. This is the sound of new Europe, incorporating vibrant influences from the emerging new frontier that stretches all the way to Mitteleuropa, the Southeast, Greece, Turkey and beyond. The album features great performances by a host of musicians from southeast Europe and by Shantel himself, who also appears on lead vocals, gracing several tracks with an unexpected, elegant deadpan delivery. Disko Partizani sees Shantel successfully synthesizing his experiences as a producer, musician and DJ to create catchy, energetic and festive pop songs, full of hooks and surprises. Eastern European elements are adopted with real respect for their cultural roots, and then fused and transformed into a new form of urban music that works as an interface between East and West. Venerable melodies and rhythms -- some of them dating back to the Byzantine Empire -- are rejuvenated and used as a new source of inspiration for modern, trans-European pop, a welcome alternative to some of the more worn-out Anglo-Saxon musical models. Shantel conceived these songs while traveling, and found inspiration in the most unlikely locations: a railroad station in Romania, a highway stop in Greece, an airport terminal in Istanbul, an Arabic café in Tel Aviv, a taxi stand in Sofia, the back seat in a Mercedes Benz belonging to a Macedonian gypsy king, backstage in London, Paris and Rio de Janeiro. Some may define it as belly dance meets hip-hop, electronica-fuelled Balkan stompers, Klezmer reggae rock'n'roll tunes, etc., with lyrics in English, Romanian, Serbian, Rom (Gypsy) and so forth. Whatever this is, it is joyful madness.
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CD
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AY 006CD
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The follow-up to the critically-acclaimed debut album Bucovina Club. This dynamite collection curated by the renowned German DJ/producer Shantel (Stefan Hantel) sees him forsaking his old trip-hop stylings for the manic music of the Balkans. Serving as a sort of imaginary soundtrack to Frankfurt's amazing, vodka-fueled, gypsy-rave all-nighter club, the now-defunct Bucovina, Shantel's eclectic mix of clubsounds, future funk, Roma ballads, Balkan brass and freestyle electronica are now legendary across the dancefloors of Europe. Digital teams up with analog, beat embraces melody, tango goes lyrical -- and it ain't over til the samovar sings. Shantel's former life as a producer of downtempo and electronica has taught him to fly in the face of convention by treating local Eastern European and Balkan music in the same way as hiphop and all kinds of club music, making them just as much an integral part of today's youth and pop culture. There's nothing clichéd about this new wave of music -- and not a bobble-hatted world music purist in sight. On Bucovina Club Vol. 2, five of the fifteen tracks are exclusive original recordings and five are exclusive mixes. Shantel's own tracks feature stars of the gypsy and Balkan music scene: Boban Markoviç and his son Marko, Jony Iliev, Vesna Petkovic, and the all-star line-up Bucovina Club Orkestar. The exclusive remixes feature Mahala Raï Banda, Fanfare Ciocarlia, Sandy Lopic Orkestar and French-Romanian actress Rona Hartner (of Tony Gatlif's movie Gadjo Dilo). The other tracks present a host of famous artists and some newcomers such as: Dr. Nelle Karajlic, Balkan Beat Box, Slonovski Bal and Goran Bregovic. Bucovina Club Vol. 2 is pure naked euphoria, placing a direct and visceral punch that really gets people moving. The parties take up where the ecstatic raves of the house and techno generation left off.
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CD
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AY 001CD
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Bucovina Club is a 2003 release, distributed in the US for the first time. Stefan Hantel, aka Shantel from Frankfurt/Main has firmly established himself as an all-around electronica producer with his previous albums Higher Than The Funk (K7!) and Great Delay. With Bucovina Club, Shantel presents sounds from Eastern Europe -- the brass bands of Macedonia and the gypsy swing of the Wallachei -- to the Frankfurt dancefloor. The tracklist features artists such as Goran Bregovic, Taraf De Haidouks, Fanfare Ciocarlia, Kocani Orkestar, and Boban Markovic Orkestar, established names in Eastern Europe and the Balkans, some of whom have actually played the now-defunct Bucovina Club.
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12"
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AY 005EP
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We've cut the waiting time for the next Bucovina Club anthology. The Bucovina Vol. 2 EP opens a window on the work of Shantel, the mastermind behind the Bucovina Club. Track 1: Shantel Feat. Mahala Rai Banda: 'Bucogeasca Dub' - The Kings of Mahala (Mahala = Gypsy district) got together with Shantel to produce their first CD (currently at number 3 in the world music charts). In the summer of 2004 Shantel and the Mahala Rai Banda wowed critics and audiences all over Europe with the Electric Gypsyland Tour. Here's a taste of Bucogeasca Dub that heats up the dancefloor to fever pitch. Track 2: Jewish Monkey's Feat. Boom Pam: Koshernostra Mix. This is a new version of the legendary dancefloor burner Bucovina by the Tel Aviv Jewish Monkeys and Boom Pam, remixed by Shantel. All we re going to say about the Jewish Monkeys right now is: watch this space. You'll be hearing a lot more from them soon, as well as from Boom Pam, who have just cut their first CD in the studio with Shantel and whose gigs have already taken Berlin, Frankfurt and Cologne by storm. Track 3: Balkan Beat Box: Bulgarian Chicks. So who wouldn't want to get to know these Chicks and the white-hot Balkan Beat Box? The New York project by Ori Kaplan and Tamir Muskat combines the organic with the electronic, and couples sexy vocals with a beat that has set dancefloors vibrating from Jerusalem to every Bucovina Club in Europe. At the Transmusicales Festival in Rennes this number was on constant play from six in the morning, to the roar of an ecstatic crowd."
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12"
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AY 002EP
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Tracklist: Shantel feat. Boban Markovic Orkestar "Disko" (The Haaksman & Haaksman Jump Up Gypsy Mix), Shantel Feat. Boban Markovic Orkestar "Disko" (Original), Shantel Feat. Boban Markovic Orkestar "Disko"(Friends Of Boban Mix), Shantel Feat. Boban Markovic Orkestar "Disko"(Ras Mix).
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