Fireside Chat

Anthony "Shake" Shakir

Frictional, Detroit

Welcome to Mr. Shakir's beatstore! Calling the owner Anthony "Shake" Shakir underrecognized, underrated or underappreciated might be true if one wants to talk record sales, poster boy images or music for the masses. It is far from being true, if one wants to talk about the influence this Detroit native had on the Motor City's music and successive on electronic music throughout the world. Shake was there almost from the start. There meaning the impact the famous Belleville Three (May, Atkins, Saunderson) had on the music that was called techno. As Sequence 10, Shakir releases on the seminal sampler 'Techno! The New Dance Sound Of Detroit', worked with Derrick May and Carl Craig as well as for Metroplex and knows the independent music business as well as it's content from inside out (engineer, writer, producer, A&R). His own label Frictional Recordings brought a hip hop aesthetic into the world of Detroit techno that crossed that extraordinary electro angle projects like Cybotron or Drexciya followed. In Shake's case, unique and groundbreaking are terms that aren't an overstatement. Outside of the grand lodge of Detroit, he went on to work with German indie greats FSK and put his sample-led magic onto their ways of recording like a band. Shakir's influence or clairvoyance can be found in almost every modern style of bass or electronic music and his sample techniques are still awe-inspiring stunts to the ears of any listener. Far from marking a dead point or stagnation, Rush Hour Records recently released an anthology covering 15 years of 'Frictionalism' - here's to the next 15 with a talkative Anthony Shakir right next to RBMA's fireside place. Shaken, not stirred!