"The Shamen" were a British electronic music group that was most active during the early and mid-1990s. Initially formed in Scotland by Colin Angus, Keith McKenzie, Derek McKenzie and Peter Stephenson in the 1980s as a psychedelic-influenced indie rock act, they debuted with the 1987 album ''Drop''.
Eventually Derek McKenzie, Keith McKenzie and Stephenson left and Angus was joined by William Sinnott (aka Will Sin). By the time they released the 1989 album ''In Gorbachev We Trust'', they were already flirting with the indie dance formula popular in the Madchester era. When ''En Tact'' was released in 1990, they had completed the transformation to a rave act. This album was perhaps their most popular, spawning several hit singles such as "Move Any Mountain" and "Make It Mine".
Sinnott drowned in an accident just following the release of ''En Tact'', but Angus continued on, recruiting the rapper Mr C. (real name Richard West). ''Boss Drum'' followed in 1992 and featured a noted spoken-word collaboration, "Re:Evolution" with Terence McKenna, and one major, although controversial, hit: "Ebenezer Goode".
The song was accused of promoting drug use due to the refrain ''Ezer Goode, Ezer Goode'' -- implying the phrase '' 'E's are good'' ('E' being slang for the dance drug Ecstasy, aka MDMA) -- and due to similar double-entendre drug references throughout the song. The subsequent storm of publicity helped place the song at the top of the UK charts for 4 weeks.
''Axis Mutatis'' in 1995 did not make as much of an impact in the charts, but The Shamen continued recording into the late 1990s, releasing several LPs with an increasingly experimental bent.
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