Shakedown is a Swiss musical project, known internationally for its 2002

hit single A hit song, also known as a hit record, hit single or simply a hit, is a recorded song or instrumental that becomes broadly popular or well-known. Although ''hit song'' means any widely played or big-selling song, the specific term ''hit record' ...

, " At Night". By the time they started the group in 1999, Stephan Mandrax and Sebastien Kohler were two brothers who blended their knowledge to form their genre, a modified disco infused

house A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...

crossed with electro.

History

The 1980s

Stephan 'Mandrax' Kohler, a fan of new wave and

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

, made his 1984 DJ debut in a notorious music club called Dolce Vita in Lausanne. While in England he discovered house music, and two years later started to promote illegal parties on his return to Switzerland in order to DJ and play for large crowds, thus pioneering this new sound nationally by playing all over the country and around Europe, especially Paris.

Early 1990s

Stephan moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1992, starting the

labels A label (as distinct from signage) is a piece of paper, plastic film, cloth, metal, or other material affixed to a container or product, on which is written or printed information or symbols about the product or item. Information printed dir ...

, Liquid Groove and Boombastic and with the American DJ, Mike Delgado. The label Liquid Groove garnered its first success with the H₂O project: H₂O featuring Billie "Satisfied", H₂O "Living for the Future" and H₂O featuring Billie "Nobody's Business" which went to enter the UK top 20 chart.

Late 1990s

In late 1999, Stephan returned to Switzerland to set up a new home and

recording studio A recording studio is a specialized facility for sound recording, mixing, and audio production of instrumental or vocal musical performances, spoken words, and other sounds. They range in size from a small in-home project studio large enoug ...

. After a stint studying and working as a

sound engineer An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproduction, ...

in London, from 1993 to 1996, Sebastien also returned to Switzerland and started the Bel-Air Project and the label Cornflex, which lasted from 1997 to 2000. In 1998, he released a series of

CDs The compact disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then released in Octo ...

including the single "Dark Jazzor", one of the earliest recorded songs to include a crossover of

drum and bass Drum and bass (also written as drum & bass or drum'n'bass and commonly abbreviated as D&B, DnB, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by fast breakbeats (typically 165–185 beats per minute) with heavy bass and sub-ba ...

incorporated with

. Recognising they had developed a complementary set of skills, the two brothers created their musical project, Shakedown. They started working together by producing tracks for other artists, before beginning to record a few demo songs with artists such as Pookie and the vocalist Terra Deva.

Early 2000s

After a year of recording sessions in New York City and

Lausanne , neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR-74), ...

, their

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

, ''You Think You Know'' was released at the end of 2001 on

Sony BMG Sony BMG Music Entertainment was an American record company owned as a 50–50 joint venture between Sony Corporation of America and Bertelsmann. The venture's successor, the revived Sony Music, is wholly owned by Sony, following their buyout o ...

. It included the track "At Night".

"At Night"

"At Night" became a 2002 dance anthem, crossing over to national charts and peaking in the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

at No. 6. They made an appearance on the

BBC Television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 193 ...

programme ''

Top of the Pops ''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British Record chart, music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show ...

''. In June 2003, a follow-up track, "Drowsy with Hope", peaked at No. 46 in the UK chart.

Discography

Charted singles

Remixes

The brothers also produced

remix A remix (or reorchestration) is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, video, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The o ...

es for the following acts: *Sly & Robbie "Superthruster" (Palm Pictures) *Röyksopp "Eple"(Shakedown Remix) (Wall of Sound) *Mirwais "I Can't Wait" (Shakedown Remix) (Naïve) *Mousse T "Fire" (Shakedown's Firehorse Mix) (Serious Records) *Eric Polaire "Polar Bear" (Shakedown Dub) (Panorama) *Mousse T "Is It Cos I'm Cool?" (Shakedown Tangerine Mix) (Independence /Universal) *Les Rythmes Digitales "Jacques Your Body" (Shakedown Remix) (PIAS) *D. Ramirez "La Discotek" (Shakedown Remix) (Underwater Records) *Virtualmismo "Mismoplastico" (Shakedown Remix) DFC *Sharam Jey Ft. Princess Superstar "Monday Morning" (Shakedown Remix) (King Kong) *Haji & Emanuel "The Pressure" (Big Love) They also garnered success by producing and co-writing for: *

Bootsy Collins William Earl "Bootsy" Collins (born October 26, 1951) is an American bass guitarist and singer. Rising to prominence with James Brown in the early 1970s, and later with Parliament-Funkadelic, Collins established himself as one of the leading n ...

: "Funky & You Know It" (Play With Bootsy LP) (Warner) *

Rinôçérôse Rinôçérôse (stylized as rinôçérôse or «rinôçérôse») is a French band founded by Jean-Philippe Freu and Patrice Carrié that mixes rock music and electronic dance music. The duo of musicians also work as psychologists, calling themse ...

: "Friction Dancer" / "Get Ready Now" (Schizophonia LP / V2 *

: "Time Machine" / "Mind City" / "Tomorrow" (Futurinô LP /V2) Shakedown's tracks were used amongst others in the films '' The Transporter 2'' by Louis Leterrier and '' Les Corps Impatients'' by Xavier Gianolli.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shakedown (Group) Musical groups established in 1999 Swiss musical groups 1999 establishments in Switzerland