shananigans, Jul 30, 2005
Over the last ten years Mike Shannon has been at the vanguard his craft using a lurid sense of personal aesthetic that has made him a luminary in the Canadian electronic music scene.
Raised in Kitchener Ontario, Mike began mixing records at fifteen with incisive extrapolations of acid house and techno before branching off to other elements of the electronic genre that manifest as diamond-edged production skills.
Using the vehicles of techno/ house, and emotive elements that transcend and subvert the periodic table of known musical genres; he began to network with other artists and founded Pulse Productions.
Over the course of the next few years Pulse Productions would grow from sporadic occurrences of small multi-media events for local artists, to the weekly Phunktion parties, which brought to Kitchener's Club Abstract entities such as Spencer Kincy, Boo Williams, Panty Tec, Traxx, Slam, and Kevin Yost to name a few.
In 1999, he was offered a residency at Techno Fridays at Industry Nightclub in Toronto. That same year he launched Cynosure Recordings, a label designed to serve as a platform for like-minded producers and artists adept at eliciting the emotional response of the listener by virtue of their uncompromising ethic towards a high artistic, yet accessible standard.
In its 6 years of existence, Cynosure has released singles by artists as Mossa, Deadbeat, Bucci, and a few singles of his own. By 2000, with Cynosure quickly gaining a reputation for cutting the throat of the mundane sound that has been prevalent in the auditory landscapes both at home and overseas, Shannon embarked on his first European tour with Jeff Milligan.
The pair's highly individualized mixing and sonic presentation left a favorable impression on European audiences and by 2001, Shannon caught the attention of the Force Inc. Music Works imprint, which signed his full-length debut, "Slight of Hand." That year Mike and Jeff would formally partner on the operation of Jeff’s imprint Revolver Canada. Mike and Jeff both relocated in Montreal to begin working closer with the core of the prolific Cynosure and Revolver artist roster.
In 2003 he relocated to Santiago, Chile and began to work on a down-tempo project. After 5 months of touring South America, and working with other music pioneers as well as firing off a volley of new releases Mike then returned to Montreal to continue studio work on other forthcoming emanations.
With a long stint in Spain in the planned Mr. Shannon begins yet another phase in another setting seeking only to undermine the mediocre mindset that afflicts music, life and spirit.
