Hard to find and hard to please. We know that the easy route is always the least rewarding and that the best stuff is always hidden at the bottom of a pile, or under the counter, or in the basement of Chinese nail salon in the Bronx. That’s why we’re not interested by the tick-box mentality of radio playlists and the broad-brush approach of media empires. We instead present a utopian, transnational vision of culture that always stays one step ahead of fickle fashions. We’ll be covering anything from maracatù from the Pernambuco area of Brazil, the duttiest UK dubstep and low club, Haitian fight songs, Barabadian dancehall or French street-dance expressions.
Always the first to promote the hot sounds of the global-city to an international community of beat heads and music junkies – in issue 001 we broke the sound of Congolese coupé decalé, in issue 002 we announced the arrival of the international ‘beat generation’ and were the first to interview José Padhila, the Brazilian director of Bus 174 and now Elite Squad. And we’re just as likely to hit people upside their head with the new sound of Chinese rock as to hype the latest street sounds to from these shores.
But it’s not just music – we’re also in touch with many of the major street artists and graphic designers who have submitted exclusive artwork for publication – already Invader, HVW8 and LCP United have connected; and our extra stush typography and layout and our specially commissioned cover art has had grafik artists salivating like it was a first edition of Art Review.
And what speaks to us more than a hot artist is a great story – that’s why we’ll be speaking with human rights activist and Olympic winner Tommie Smith and Dominican author Junot Diaz, or looking back at the seminal warehouse parties of 1988 and the way they’ve shaped the music we know and love today. Never happy telling things the way things appear to be, we’re more concerned with the shape of things to come. SHOOK is the uncertaincy principle in full effect. www.shook.fm
Download Issue 1 with articles on and about: GUILTY SIMPSON, INVINCIBLE, DENAUN PORTER, BLACK MILK, JAY ELECTRONICA, GOYA MUSIC, BENJI B, PAUL WHITE, HVW8 FEIYUE SHOES, DJ MURO, SPACE INVADER, and more
Download Issue 2 with articles on and about:SAMIYAM, FLYING LOTUS, RAS_G, POO BAH RECORDS, HUDSON MOHAWKE, MIKE SLOTT, JOE GIBBS, TAKE, SA-RA, JAMES POYSER, KARRIEM RIGGINS, ANDREW MEZA, BLU, TA’RAACH, and more!
