Shake Stew - Lila '2023

Tracks list

Award winning Austrian Band Shake Stew combine hypnotic grooves and their
trademark high-energy style with a more subtle and deeply spiritual vibe on
their sixth album Lila. Working with spoken word artist Precious Nnebedum and
producer Marco Kleebauer for the first time, the album offers 5 previously
unreleased songs as well as a pulsating live session. The band’s unusual
configuration of 2 drummers, 2 bass players and 3 horns remains, as does the
line up of Johannes Schleiermacher, Mario Rom and Astrid Wiesinger make up the
wind section with Nikolaus Dolp and Herbert Pirker on drums and Lukas
Kranzelbinder and Oliver Potratz on bass.

‘Lila’ sees Kranzelbinder fulfill a long-held ambition to work with
Viennese producer Marco Kleebauer (Bilderbuch, Sharktank, Leyya). Like
Kranzelbinder, he is a key figure in the Austrian music scene and although their
musical paths have been very different the collaboration just clicked. On
several tracks we hear Kranzelbinder's now familiar multi-layered compositions
supplemented by Kleebauer’s sound layers pushing the door wide open to a
new musical chapter of Shake Stew, but not at the sacrifice of band’s
trademark sound. Another exciting collaboration is that with spoken word artist
Precious Nnebedum, who grew up between Nigeria and Austria and features on
‘Not Water But Rest’. On ‘Shasta Fey’ – one of
3 live tracks – the hypnotic grooves and trance-like passages associated
with the band jump to the fore. On a repetitively rippling carpet of drums and
guembri, bassist Potratz is given seemingly endless space to fully unfold with
his Bass VI. The title reflects the strong influence of the film world on
Kranzelbinder's music, as Shasta Fey is a character from Thomas Pynchon's
Inherent Vice and the track ‘Detroit’ is an homage to a scene in
Jim Jarmusch's film Only Lovers Left Alive. Both films have already served as
inspiration for several pieces. The title track and first single
‘Lila’, takes a gentler path showcasing Kranzelbinder's instinct
for melody and instrumentation and is the band's shortest – but perhaps
also most concise – piece to date. ‘Detroit’ captivates with
a dialogue between the kalimba and drums until Kranzelbinder also dives in with
his guembri (Moroccan bass lute). The track also forms the transition to a more
playful part of the album and the three live tracks, ‘Heat’,
‘Shasta Fey’ and ‘Breathe’. Recorded in a small venue
in Vienna last year they capture the excitement and thrill of the band’s
now legendary live shows with ‘Breathe’ ending the album with a
collective exhale.



Tracklist:
1.01 - Shake Stew - Not Water But Rest (5:57)
1.02 - Shake Stew - Lila (3:59)
1.03 - Shake Stew - Detroit (6:32)
1.04 - Shake Stew - Heat (live) (9:47)
1.05 - Shake Stew - Shasta Fey (live) (6:27)
1.06 - Shake Stew - Breathe (live) (4:20)

Related artists