Shem McCauley is no stranger to laying low. After what has been a long imposed hiatus he has quietly reemerged… and we do mean quietly. Originally you would have known Shem as DJ Streets Ahead, a pioneer in the UK hip-hop scratch scene. The man has more remixes than you can shake a tone arm at. Just to name a few, to give you a feel, he has worked with the likes of Prodigy, Moby, Sister Sledge, Roxane Shante, James Brown, Carl Cox, Tim Westwood, Junkie XL, and Public Enemy. Shem is continuing now with the moniker Slacker and on February 23rd is releasing his next album, Start A New Life on Godlike & Electric Records.
I can’t begin to tell you just how smooth this album is much less how much of a surprise it was to have it dropped in my box. Basically Shem is keeping things under wraps until the release date as best he can. What I can tell you is that if you are a fan of downtempo this is right up your alley. It reminded me of “Entroducing” by Shadow on heroin and opium bender. Beautiful, simply beautiful. If you are a fan of groups like Sabers of Paradise, Dusted, Boards of Canada, The KLF and the like the you should do yourself a favor and grab this when it drops.
In the mean time you lucky URB readers are privy to an unreleased mix of one of the tracks from the album courtesy of Shem and Rephlektor. Check out “A New Days Dawn” (NewEdit) HERE and check Slacker out on Myspace for more tunes to follow.
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