One Hundred Project : Shanky

What is on your stereo at the moment?
Better Days by the Million Dollar Orchestra (of course!), The Best of Norman Connors and a Leroy Hutson album.

3 records that changed your life. Why?
The Salsoul Orchestra - Ooh I Love It (Love Break)
Heard this at Yellow in about 93 in Manchester and dug out the tune by asking (pre-internet you see!) around record shops and trying to sing the lyric.. must have looked like a twat..Hadnt heard of Salsoul before then I'm affraid to say.. this lead to me pretty much ditching all the disco I then owned (which was shite cheesy stuff) and opened my mind to the underground sound. My OCD then kicked in and I took it on myself to find out about and listen to every Salsoul tune.. then turned to Prelude.. and when I could afford it, I bought the records I liked from these labels... Next was Westend.. Even though I think I know most of the back catalogues, something new always turns up.. I remember writing a list of all the Salsoul records I wanted and giving it to anybody I knew who attended Car boot sales... all they ever came back with was Avenue B Boogie Band.. no fucking wonder why its shit and everyone was trying to sell their copies.

Patrice Rushen - The Hump
Perfect jazz funk rare groover. Sublime. Sent me on another journey (down the rare groove route).

Stereo MCs - Connected
Just summed up my youth A'levels / University period. A very well crafted and now (in my view) underrated Album which should be reverred as much as Massive Attack albums of the same era.

What are you looking forward to?
The Summer. I dont function well in dark cold weather.

What couldn’t you live without? Why?
Family, close friends and my cats (and dog)... Everything material pales into insignificance.

Most memorable gig?
Playing - Electric Chair shack as part of the last rights team
Promoting - Dimitri@Northern Disco

Who/what are your influences?
Musically - in terms of sound, I'll always lean towards the orchestrated disco sound as oppossed to the P&P sound that so many others love so Montana, Baker, Harris, Young, etc...

DJ wise - gotta be Al Kent. Wouldnt be in partnership with him doing the ND ventures if I didnt rate him very highly. Although we do have very different sounds / like different tunes / different parts of tunes ("I hate that break" "I'd loop it"), theres nobody who knows as much about underground disco music from NY/Chicago areas in particular than him as far as I know. Hes got all the tunes.

In life - my mum. Simple. My first lady

What is the best and worst thing about the city that you live in?
Best - people and their attitude. Mancs are cocky bastards, with hearts of gold. And Im a Manc through and through.

Worst - lack of decent music venues. Shit public transport system.

Given the accelerated pace of modern culture, what are we due a revival in?
Cape Town DJs making a home for themselves in Manchester.

Hero? Why?
Too many.

Is there anything else that you feel that we should know?
I have size 12 feet.



Shanky Disco Mix January 2008

No tracklisting unfortunately but I can tell you that there are some rather sharp re-edits of Candido and Dee Dee Bridgewater in and amongst all the other gems.

Download the mix here.

Shanky is the promoter of Northern Disco alongside Al Kent that has hosted DJs such as Kon & Amir, Dimitri from Paris, Sean P, Rahaan and, erm, me. He's also a top DJ with an incredibly deep knowledge of all things disco, which is reflected every time he gets behind the turntables.