IN THE BEGINNING

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THE Shamen's evolution from neo-psychedelic indie-rockers to guitar-funk politicos to highly
contemporary global dance positivists is virtually unique in modern pop. In recent times, only
Scritti Politti (anarcho-noise to silky funk) and Joy Division/New Order (crushing
melancholia to pristine euphoria) have undergone such radical metamorphoses. And,
of their peers, only Primal Scream have absorbed the elements of club culture and
understood the aesthetics of dance as thoroughly and as successfully as The Shamen.

 The innovative and experimental dance force that we know today as The Shamen, the one that currently sells records
all over the world, actually has its roots in early-to-mid Eighties' Aberdeen, where the McKenzie brothers, Derek (vocals)
and Keith (drums) got together with bassist (and occasional keyboard programmer) Colin Angus, to form Alone Again
Or - taking their name from track one, side one of Love's seminal Summer Of Love LP, "Forever Changes".
 As Colin Angus explains now, "These were the grim early days of The Shamen! But Alone Again Or was really the
McKenzie brothers' band. I just happened to be their bass and keyboard player."
 Angus met the McKenzies at secondary school in Aberdeen, where Keith was in his class and Derek was in the year
below. But his school days remain memorable for little else apart from the fact that his History teacher, Mr Lawrence,
once had an affair with Annie Lennox, and that avant-ballerina, Michael Clark, once attended the school. As Colin says, only half-
smiling, "I'd like to go back there now and tell the teachers what I really thought of them."
 Colin left school in 1979, and went to study first biochemistry and then microbiology ("I switched because
microbiology was easier and more interesting," he says) at Aberdeen University, where he learned about
a strange new disease called AIDS.
 "After that, I took the whole subject pretty seriously," he says. "I was never a promiscuous person, but,
ever since then, I've been even less so."
 Eventually, Colin received a lower second class Honours' degree,
decided that Science might not be his vocation after all, and started a
period of psychiatric nursing, "because I thought it would be interesting
and character building. Oh, and to get some dosh."
 At the same time, Angus began to develop his interest in Sixties'
psychedelia (Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, 13th Floor Elevators, The Fugs),
Seventies' electronic music (Tangerine Dream, Gong), and Eighties'
melodic post-punk pop (Wire, The Cure, The Associates, The Banshees),
by hooking up with the McKenzies and putting his infatuations into
practice.
 Keith's own fascination for the sequenced sounds of early hip hop (and
such decisive electro experiments as Afrika Bambaataa's Kraftwerk-
influenced "Planet Rock") had a considerable effect on Alone Again Or,
who put out a single called "Drum The Beat (In My Soul)" on their own
All One label, at the tail end of 1984. Colin remembers this first record
with mixed emotions.
 "Keith was very much into drum machines and programmed stuff right
from the beginning," he says, "and he also incorporated a certain synthi-
pop element, which gave the record a rather cheap, crass feel. But the
basic sound - massive dirty great guitar, over a driving sequenced drum
machine and bass track - isn't a million miles away from the current
Shamen blueprint.
 "In fact," Angus continues, "the guitar sound we used on later Shamen
stuff, like `Transcendental' and `Pro-Gen', had its birth in those early Wilf
Smarties' (the veteran Scottish producer, whose huge and varied collection
of obscure Sixties' psychedelic records first attracted Angus and company)
sessions, that we turned into instrumentals on the B-sides of our first two
singles. I'm quite proud of `Smarter Than The Average Bear', which was
entirely sequenced and very danceable, in its own way."
 "Drum The Beat (In My Soul)" helped to earn the band attention from
some major labels, one of which, Polydor, offered them a deal. But, by
the release of Alone Again Or's second single in March 1985 ("Dream
Come True"), which was as much New Romantic as it was a radical rock-
dance fusion, Colin had begun to lose interest.
 "We were getting really bland and soft," he recalls, "and Derek was
getting into stuff like Scritti Politti. It was wimp city, and much too fey
for my liking."
 Angus does, however, point Shamen historians in the direction of the
B-side of the 12-inch, "Drum The Beat (Shall We Dance?)", an early
indication of The Shamen's latter-day technical trickery, electronic
dabblings and Acid House bleeps.
 After the Polydor single flopped, Colin and the McKenzies took the
opportunity to rethink their approach. But Alone Again Or weren't, as a
recent exhaustive article in Record Collector magazine suggests, dropped
by the label - it was the band's own decision to leave.
 Not only that, but they were also given a sizeable cash settlement to
coincide with their departure - which was not to be the last time the group
would ingeniously squeeze money out of a multinational conglomerate.