DJ Shakra of Tranquil Elephantizer carved out his music path in London during the dance music counter culture explosion of the late1980’s. His introduction to House came through a serendipitous meeting with journalist and producer Richard Norris of The Grid, who one day in early ’88 handed him a cassette with “Acid House” scrawled on the cover. With his interest peaked by the new sound, he began frequenting clubs like Spectrum, The Trip, R.I.P and underground raves, squat parties and free festivals of the era. It was during many late night after party sessions that he started honing his DJ skills. A chance studio session in Spring of 1989 with housemate Simon Mattocks, DJ’s Ashley Beedle and Eddie Jones spawned his first collaborative release on vinyl; Psychic Vitamins “Safe as Houses” on FATW Records. In the fall of 1989 he was offered a gig by DJ Harvey, who at the time was hosting a Tuesday night shindig ‘The Captain’s Table” in London’s West End. Along with giving him his first DJ break, Harvey was inadvertently responsible for landing him with the ‘Shakra’ moniker, due to an typo error on the hand drawn flyer. Rolling with the name and taking stylistic cues from the likes of Harvey, Andy Weatherall and Simon Mattocks, he went on to DJ across Europe and the US. Headlining slots followed on I-D Magazine’s World Tour in Iceland, Megatripolis at Heaven, and music festivals like Womad and Rennes Le Château in France. In 1991 he joined a UK tour with The Grid and led sound system takeovers with the Sugarlump crew at Club UK and countless DIY undergrounds. Along with sessions at outdoor UK mega raves like Destiny and Universe, the high point of this period being a peak hours set at the renegade ‘Sugarlump’ tent at Glastonbury Festival in 1992.

Taking all this collective energy into the studio was always a priority, and a break through moment came in 1993 with an invitation from UK producers ‘Power Circle’ to work on their track; “Garden Of Peace” ’The resulting remix was released on M&G records as the “Shakra Mix” and was picked up and widely regarded as a stone cold classic by the likes DJ’s Sasha & Digweed, Keoki and even The Godfather of house; Frankie Knuckles. To this day the track still gets comments on You Tube like; “ Oh God, what a track” and “After 23 years, I have finally found this!”

One mid 90’s afternoon he got a call from friend & producer Crispin J Glover, who invited him to his studio in Elephant & Castle in South London. Glover needed assistance mixing a track, but didn’t have enough hands to operate the array of analog instruments. Shakra was assigned the task of tweaking the Roland TB 303 synth for what would become the ‘Caucasian Boy’ acid house opus; “Northern Lights.” The track was originally released on Glover’s Matrix imprint and later picked up by Strictly Rhythm, with full support from the likes of Danny Rampling, Keoki, Dave Angel and Josh Wink. Also released on Matrix in ’95 was Tranquil Elephantizer’s debut “Zombie Dawn” produced with the Kedros Brothers (Slowly, Headrillaz) and Alexi Worrall (Lexi Love). This original line up later penned “Low Down” for Tony Thorpe’s Language imprint and “Chrome Jam” for Secret History. Around the same time he formed “Camberwell Butterflies” and recorded the groups debut e.p.’Caterpillar’ for Chill Out records. Later that year came a chance collaboration with Marshal Jefferson. The results of those sessions, The ‘Age of Mirrors ep’ came out on Fergal Sharkies X Records. More collabs with CJ Glover followed with an acid track for Strictly Rhythm “Kashmir” and titles like “Boogie Buffet” on Back to Basics, “Disco Recovery” on Primal Records, and a chance session with NYC producer Blue Jean, “The Blue Buddha” on Matrix. Berkeley’s Primal Records also put out “Bass Age” by Disco Direction and the Foxgluv debut “Cult UV 8”. In ’96 he lent his bass guitar work to Glovers ‘Century Falls’ cover of the 70’s disco anthem, “It’s Music” for Soundproof Records, which led to more live bass on Kenny Hawkes’s “Sleaze Walking” for Paper Recordings. Shakra’s remixes, original works and collaborations have also appeared on Effective, Dust, Definitive, Universal Egg, Evolution, Moonshine, Deep Distraction, Journeys by DJ, Akashic, Heavenly, Work, Secret History, Club Tools, Survival and Guerrilla Records.

After relocating in late 90’s to California, he focused energy on his live touring band “Foxgluv” and co wrote & produced the groups debut album “Flame & Fortune” With Rob Miller (Second Skin) and Jonah Sharp (Reflective) for EMI/Cyber Set. Foxgluv became staples at Burning Man, Raindance and 13 Moontribe in Santa Cruz. After Foxgluv’s debut album he produced another first outing, “All People” for Bay Area Soul Man Blane Lyon. During this period he formed two live experimental groups, playing bass in psychedelic rock quartet “Soulcraft” and producing the live electro rap outfit “Nosolo’s idiosyncratic debut album “Aerosol.”

Tranquil Elephantizer’s new live set has taken a few of years of experimenting and road testing. Select live sessions will feature guest MC’s, musicians and vocalists from the wide range of talented friends, bringing elements of his legacy productions bang up to date with fresh material and always leaving space for improvisational surprises. Recently re-united with Crispin J Glover in a Trans-Atlantic online production experiment: ’Caucasian Boy’ have a string of releases on the UK’s highly regarded ‘Music For Freaks’ and Glovers new ‘Century City Music’ imprint.

DjShakra continues to build the Tranquil Elephantizer legacy with brand new material on the UK’s respected ’Future Boogie”, San Francisco’s ‘Wicked Records. A clued in record reviewer on Discogs perfectly captured the feeling and flavor of Tranquil Elephantizer’s release “Trisha” on Wicked Records, and pretty much summed up the entire musical mission:

“The trip from the opening beat is cosmic, ethereal, slowly building it’s journey and taking you to the dangerous edge that leaves you wondering if you can ever find your way back.”

TRANQUILELEPHANTIZER

DJ Shakra of Tranquil Elephantizer carved out his music path in London during the dance music counter culture explosion of the late1980’s. His introduction to House came through a serendipitous meeting with journalist and producer Richard Norris of The Grid, who one day in early ’88 handed him a cassette with “Acid House” scrawled on the cover. With his interest peaked by the new sound, he began frequenting clubs like Spectrum, The Trip, R.I.P and underground raves, squat parties and free festivals of the era. It was during many late night after party sessions that he started honing his DJ skills. A chance studio session in Spring of 1989 with housemate Simon Mattocks, DJ’s Ashley Beedle and Eddie Jones spawned his first collaborative release on vinyl; Psychic Vitamins “Safe as Houses” on FATW Records. In the fall of 1989 he was offered a gig by DJ Harvey, who at the time was hosting a Tuesday night shindig ‘The Captain’s Table” in London’s West End. Along with giving him his first DJ break, Harvey was inadvertently responsible for landing him with the ‘Shakra’ moniker, due to an typo error on the hand drawn flyer. Rolling with the name and taking stylistic cues from the likes of Harvey, Andy Weatherall and Simon Mattocks, he went on to DJ across Europe and the US. Headlining slots followed on I-D Magazine’s World Tour in Iceland, Megatripolis at Heaven, and music festivals like Womad and Rennes Le Château in France. In 1991 he joined a UK tour with The Grid and led sound system takeovers with the Sugarlump crew at Club UK and countless DIY undergrounds. Along with sessions at outdoor UK mega raves like Destiny and Universe, the high point of this period being a peak hours set at the renegade ‘Sugarlump’ tent at Glastonbury Festival in 1992.

Taking all this collective energy into the studio was always a priority, and a break through moment came in 1993 with an invitation from UK producers ‘Power Circle’ to work on their track; “Garden Of Peace” ’The resulting remix was released on M&G records as the “Shakra Mix” and was picked up and widely regarded as a stone cold classic by the likes DJ’s Sasha & Digweed, Keoki and even The Godfather of house; Frankie Knuckles. To this day the track still gets comments on You Tube like; “ Oh God, what a track” and “After 23 years, I have finally found this!”

One mid 90’s afternoon he got a call from friend & producer Crispin J Glover, who invited him to his studio in Elephant & Castle in South London. Glover needed assistance mixing a track, but didn’t have enough hands to operate the array of analog instruments. Shakra was assigned the task of tweaking the Roland TB 303 synth for what would become the ‘Caucasian Boy’ acid house opus; “Northern Lights.” The track was originally released on Glover’s Matrix imprint and later picked up by Strictly Rhythm, with full support from the likes of Danny Rampling, Keoki, Dave Angel and Josh Wink. Also released on Matrix in ’95 was Tranquil Elephantizer’s debut “Zombie Dawn” produced with the Kedros Brothers (Slowly, Headrillaz) and Alexi Worrall (Lexi Love). This original line up later penned “Low Down” for Tony Thorpe’s Language imprint and “Chrome Jam” for Secret History. Around the same time he formed “Camberwell Butterflies” and recorded the groups debut e.p.’Caterpillar’ for Chill Out records. Later that year came a chance collaboration with Marshal Jefferson. The results of those sessions, The ‘Age of Mirrors ep’ came out on Fergal Sharkies X Records. More collabs with CJ Glover followed with an acid track for Strictly Rhythm “Kashmir” and titles like “Boogie Buffet” on Back to Basics, “Disco Recovery” on Primal Records, and a chance session with NYC producer Blue Jean, “The Blue Buddha” on Matrix. Berkeley’s Primal Records also put out “Bass Age” by Disco Direction and the Foxgluv debut “Cult UV 8”. In ’96 he lent his bass guitar work to Glovers ‘Century Falls’ cover of the 70’s disco anthem, “It’s Music” for Soundproof Records, which led to more live bass on Kenny Hawkes’s “Sleaze Walking” for Paper Recordings. Shakra’s remixes, original works and collaborations have also appeared on Effective, Dust, Definitive, Universal Egg, Evolution, Moonshine, Deep Distraction, Journeys by DJ, Akashic, Heavenly, Work, Secret History, Club Tools, Survival and Guerrilla Records.

After relocating in late 90’s to California, he focused energy on his live touring band “Foxgluv” and co wrote & produced the groups debut album “Flame & Fortune” With Rob Miller (Second Skin) and Jonah Sharp (Reflective) for EMI/Cyber Set. Foxgluv became staples at Burning Man, Raindance and 13 Moontribe in Santa Cruz. After Foxgluv’s debut album he produced another first outing, “All People” for Bay Area Soul Man Blane Lyon. During this period he formed two live experimental groups, playing bass in psychedelic rock quartet “Soulcraft” and producing the live electro rap outfit “Nosolo’s idiosyncratic debut album “Aerosol.”

Tranquil Elephantizer’s new live set has taken a few of years of experimenting and road testing. Select live sessions will feature guest MC’s, musicians and vocalists from the wide range of talented friends, bringing elements of his legacy productions bang up to date with fresh material and always leaving space for improvisational surprises. Recently re-united with Crispin J Glover in a Trans-Atlantic online production experiment: ’Caucasian Boy’ have a string of releases on the UK’s highly regarded ‘Music For Freaks’ and Glovers new ‘Century City Music’ imprint.

DjShakra continues to build the Tranquil Elephantizer legacy with brand new material on the UK’s respected ’Future Boogie”, San Francisco’s ‘Wicked Records. A clued in record reviewer on Discogs perfectly captured the feeling and flavor of Tranquil Elephantizer’s release “Trisha” on Wicked Records, and pretty much summed up the entire musical mission:

“The trip from the opening beat is cosmic, ethereal, slowly building it’s journey and taking you to the dangerous edge that leaves you wondering if you can ever find your way back.”

TRANQUILELEPHANTIZER

DJ Shakra of Tranquil Elephantizer carved out his music path in London during the dance music counter culture explosion of the late1980’s. His introduction to House came through a serendipitous meeting with journalist and producer Richard Norris of The Grid, who one day in early ’88 handed him a cassette with “Acid House” scrawled on the cover. With his interest peaked by the new sound, he began frequenting clubs like Spectrum, The Trip, R.I.P and underground raves, squat parties and free festivals of the era. It was during many late night after party sessions that he started honing his DJ skills. A chance studio session in Spring of 1989 with housemate Simon Mattocks, DJ’s Ashley Beedle and Eddie Jones spawned his first collaborative release on vinyl; Psychic Vitamins “Safe as Houses” on FATW Records. In the fall of 1989 he was offered a gig by DJ Harvey, who at the time was hosting a Tuesday night shindig ‘The Captain’s Table” in London’s West End. Along with giving him his first DJ break, Harvey was inadvertently responsible for landing him with the ‘Shakra’ moniker, due to an typo error on the hand drawn flyer. Rolling with the name and taking stylistic cues from the likes of Harvey, Andy Weatherall and Simon Mattocks, he went on to DJ across Europe and the US. Headlining slots followed on I-D Magazine’s World Tour in Iceland, Megatripolis at Heaven, and music festivals like Womad and Rennes Le Château in France. In 1991 he joined a UK tour with The Grid and led sound system takeovers with the Sugarlump crew at Club UK and countless DIY undergrounds. Along with sessions at outdoor UK mega raves like Destiny and Universe, the high point of this period being a peak hours set at the renegade ‘Sugarlump’ tent at Glastonbury Festival in 1992.

Taking all this collective energy into the studio was always a priority, and a break through moment came in 1993 with an invitation from UK producers ‘Power Circle’ to work on their track; “Garden Of Peace” ’The resulting remix was released on M&G records as the “Shakra Mix” and was picked up and widely regarded as a stone cold classic by the likes DJ’s Sasha & Digweed, Keoki and even The Godfather of house; Frankie Knuckles. To this day the track still gets comments on You Tube like; “ Oh God, what a track” and “After 23 years, I have finally found this!”

One mid 90’s afternoon he got a call from friend & producer Crispin J Glover, who invited him to his studio in Elephant & Castle in South London. Glover needed assistance mixing a track, but didn’t have enough hands to operate the array of analog instruments. Shakra was assigned the task of tweaking the Roland TB 303 synth for what would become the ‘Caucasian Boy’ acid house opus; “Northern Lights.” The track was originally released on Glover’s Matrix imprint and later picked up by Strictly Rhythm, with full support from the likes of Danny Rampling, Keoki, Dave Angel and Josh Wink. Also released on Matrix in ’95 was Tranquil Elephantizer’s debut “Zombie Dawn” produced with the Kedros Brothers (Slowly, Headrillaz) and Alexi Worrall (Lexi Love). This original line up later penned “Low Down” for Tony Thorpe’s Language imprint and “Chrome Jam” for Secret History. Around the same time he formed “Camberwell Butterflies” and recorded the groups debut e.p.’Caterpillar’ for Chill Out records. Later that year came a chance collaboration with Marshal Jefferson. The results of those sessions, The ‘Age of Mirrors ep’ came out on Fergal Sharkies X Records. More collabs with CJ Glover followed with an acid track for Strictly Rhythm “Kashmir” and titles like “Boogie Buffet” on Back to Basics, “Disco Recovery” on Primal Records, and a chance session with NYC producer Blue Jean, “The Blue Buddha” on Matrix. Berkeley’s Primal Records also put out “Bass Age” by Disco Direction and the Foxgluv debut “Cult UV 8”. In ’96 he lent his bass guitar work to Glovers ‘Century Falls’ cover of the 70’s disco anthem, “It’s Music” for Soundproof Records, which led to more live bass on Kenny Hawkes’s “Sleaze Walking” for Paper Recordings. Shakra’s remixes, original works and collaborations have also appeared on Effective, Dust, Definitive, Universal Egg, Evolution, Moonshine, Deep Distraction, Journeys by DJ, Akashic, Heavenly, Work, Secret History, Club Tools, Survival and Guerrilla Records.

After relocating in late 90’s to California, he focused energy on his live touring band “Foxgluv” and co wrote & produced the groups debut album “Flame & Fortune” With Rob Miller (Second Skin) and Jonah Sharp (Reflective) for EMI/Cyber Set. Foxgluv became staples at Burning Man, Raindance and 13 Moontribe in Santa Cruz. After Foxgluv’s debut album he produced another first outing, “All People” for Bay Area Soul Man Blane Lyon. During this period he formed two live experimental groups, playing bass in psychedelic rock quartet “Soulcraft” and producing the live electro rap outfit “Nosolo’s idiosyncratic debut album “Aerosol.”

Tranquil Elephantizer’s new live set has taken a few of years of experimenting and road testing. Select live sessions will feature guest MC’s, musicians and vocalists from the wide range of talented friends, bringing elements of his legacy productions bang up to date with fresh material and always leaving space for improvisational surprises. Recently re-united with Crispin J Glover in a Trans-Atlantic online production experiment: ’Caucasian Boy’ have a string of releases on the UK’s highly regarded ‘Music For Freaks’ and Glovers new ‘Century City Music’ imprint.

DjShakra continues to build the Tranquil Elephantizer legacy with brand new material on the UK’s respected ’Future Boogie”, San Francisco’s ‘Wicked Records. A clued in record reviewer on Discogs perfectly captured the feeling and flavor of Tranquil Elephantizer’s release “Trisha” on Wicked Records, and pretty much summed up the entire musical mission:

“The trip from the opening beat is cosmic, ethereal, slowly building it’s journey and taking you to the dangerous edge that leaves you wondering if you can ever find your way back.”