Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Shakatak: Utopia (1991)

Shakatak is a British jazz-funk band, founded in 1980.
Shakatak scored a number of chart entries, including two Top Ten hits in the UK Singles Chart, "Night Birds" (1982) and "Down on the Street" (1984). The group is still popular in Japan and the Far East, and generally produces a new album each year.
From their first release in August 1980, (the Bill Sharpe composition "Steppin'" on the Polydor record label), and their first album, Drivin' Hard, the band's singles and albums have entered the charts fairly regularly.
It was the release of "Easier Said Than Done" that was to give the band the radio exposure needed for their first top-twenty hit. This record introduced their instrumental-unison vocal sound to a much wider audience, and the track stayed in the UK chart for seventeen weeks. The follow-up, "Night Birds", was their first single to reach the top ten, and the album of the same name gave Shakatak their first gold album, entering at number four and remaining in the charts for twenty-eight weeks. By now a major international act, the success of the release gave them the number-one jazz album slot in Japan, and attracted interest across Europe and South America.
Whilst all this recording activity was going on, the band were also touring extensively through 1982, performing a total of 132 concerts in one year. The band played live shows throughout the UK, Europe, and Japan.
Tracklist
1 Marie-Louise 4:10
2 Hideaway 4:06
3 How long 3:46
4 Heart To Heart 4:34
5 Silk Emotion 5:26
6 Nothing But A Dream 4:33
7 First Love 4:13
8 My Utopia 4:07
9 Just The Way It Goes 3:54
10 High Life 4:30
11 Whispers In The Night 4:00
12 The Story Of My Life 4:04
Fileserve @ 320K