Shades Of Rhythm - The Drums are Done - 1986 - Acetate Vinyl

Second Acetate we got cut. Part of a 4 track 10" EP. Only 2 Made. After this we embarked on writing "The Frequency Album". 

Shades Of Rhythm - Acid Delight - 1986 - Acetate Vinyl

This was the second track on the Acid Delight EP which we pressed to Acetate. Probably the first Shades tunes with Pianos.

Shades Of Rhythm - Somewhere In Time - 1986 Acetate Vinyl

Third track off the Acid Delight EP pressed to Acetate in about 1987. Acetate was a 4 track 10" and there were 2 copies made.

Shades Of Rhythm - Shades Of Rhythm - 1986 - Acetate Vinyl

First official Shades Of Rhythm Release and the last one to feature the fourth member , Wildcat. 

Shades Of Rhythm - Just Feel It - Beatbox International - Vinyl

Soul side of the shades with the first song based tune we wrote. The Piano sound was slowly coming together.

Shades Of Rhythm - Feel This Way - Beatbox International - 1988 - Vinyl

Title track off our Frequency Album, widely considered the starting point of the Shades of Rhythm sound.

01 Shades Of Rhythm - Frequency - SOR Recordings - LP VINYL- 1989

Second track off the frequency LP. With the addition of a sampler , shades start experimenting with loops, lengths,starts & ends....

02 Shades Of Rhythm - Jackin Jambouree - SOR Recordings - LP Vinyl

When we formed Shades we were writing Rap but by this stage we had speeded up the beats and things were more like hip house than hip hop...

04 Shades Of Rhythm - One Black One White One Brown - LP Vinyl

Rap sums it up so far... Little did we know just what lay ahead....

06 Shades Of Rhythm - Carry The Swing - SOR Recordings - LP Vinyl

This was probably the biggest track off the Frequency album. We had finished the album and was just jamming with some pianos and vocal loops when we came up with this... We squeezed it on and the rest was part of rave history..

09 Shades Of Rhythm - Sweet Sensation (Original) - SOR Recordings - LP Vinyl

Written and produced by The VFT featuring Casey Tucker. Casey later went on to record with Ritchie Hawtins label Plus 8...

02 The VFT featuring Shades Of Rhythm - Fenland Bass - SOR Recordings - Vinyl EP - 1990

1990 , recorded under the name Frenzied Bass 

03 Shades Of Rhythm - Sub Bass - SOR Recordings - Vinyl EP

The first Remix project shades of rhythm did. I remembered we hired a massive memory sampler in just to sample all the vocals.. This tune reminds me of Liverpool and good times ....

Habit - Power (Shades Of Rhythm Remix) - Virgin - 1991

Peterborough's Tranquilizer (Dave Allen & Simon Brownlie) gets the Shades of Rhythm Remix on Peterborough born Casper Pounds label "Rising High".

Tranquilizer - Tranquilizer (Shades Of Rhythm Remix) - Rising High - Vinyl

First release on ZTT's Label, Reaching 63 in the National charts , our first real feel for sales... 
Although this is the same version as on the frequency Album, I have included it again as the quality is better than the frequency albums 9 track on a 12" quality.

01 Shades Of Rhythm - Homicide - ZTT - CD

02 Shades Of Rhythm - Out Of Bounds - ZTT - Vinyl EP

Exorcist Part 2 , came out on the Remix 12" usually a week after the original , those were the days,, 

03 Shades Of Rhythm - Exorcism - ZTT - Vinyl EP

04 Shades Of Rhythm - Winter Science - ZTT - Vinyl EP

Remix by Judge Jules & Roy the Roach , close friends of the person responsible for our signing to ZTT Katie Ketchup..

01 Shades Of Rhythm - Sweet Sensation (Buster's Sweet Salsa Mix) - ZTT - Vinyl

Remix by our close friend Mark Goodliff under his "Mr Clubman" Disguise ....

02 Shades Of Rhythm - Sweet Sensation (Mr Clubmans Mix)

04 Shades Of Rhythm - Groove Creator - ZTT - Vinyl

Mark Goodliff & John Aquaviva turn in a classic Extasy Remix from 1991.

03 Shades of Rhythm - Extacy ( Mr Clubman on Fantasy Island Mix) - ZTT - Vinyl

05 Shades Of Rhythm - Old Spice - ZTT - Vinyl

10 Summer Of 89 - Shades Of Rhythm - ZTT CD

Shades Of Rhythm Remix of The Source feat Nicole - Rock ... Classic vocals and did the Remix as payment for cheekily Sampling this track on "Everybody". 

Nicole Feat The Source - Rock (Shadse Of Rhythm Remix) - React - Vinyl - 1992

Saffron is the front girl for N-Joi back in the early 90's then she went solo then she hit the big time with Republica... 

Saffron - One Love (Shades Of Rhythm Remix) - WEA - Vinyl

ZTT pressed up 40,000 copies of this 12" EP only to Burn the whole lot in Germany after an Ulta Magnetic MC  sample (pick em up ) couldnt get clearance. We were told the Band were not speaking and it could not get sample clearance no matter what the cost ! This EP only came out on promo , so about 500 copies out there... We were to have 3 more releases on ZTT but our trust was diminishing.... surely you wouldnt go ahead with manufacture unless sample clearance was sucessful? The band was to pay a high price for this mistake, both finanically and creatively. The relationship between the Band and record company was over, it was just a case of delivering what we owed and finding a new home for our music. This was going to prove harder than we imagined, with the rave scene dwindling  and the band burnt out from gigging non stop we were about to enter what we refere to as "the dark years"....

01 Shades Of Rhythm - Happy Feelings - ZTT - Vinyl

04 Shades Of Rhythm - Lie & say Yeah (Sue Mix) - ZTT - Vinyl

07 Shades Of Rhythm - Waxin Taxin - ZTT - Vinyl

Welcome to the Shades of Rhythm Sound Cloud. Here we hope to start uploading the history of Shades of Rhythm in the form of Vinyl releases from 1987 acetates to 2009 Remixes. We have dug deep and to start the cloud off we have found our first 2 Acetates we pressed to play in our DJ sets way back in 1987 followed by our very first release on Stevie V's label Beatbox International back in 1988. 
Shades of Rhythm are Nick Slater, Kevin Lancaster & Rayan Hepburn but on these very early releases we had a fourth member, Colin "Wildcat" Tyson who was a huge influence on the band. Cat always wanted his own label & didn't want to sign his music to a another record label and in 1988 decided to go it alone. 
Next up was the Frequency album, our first Album, pressed up by ourselves and responsible for kickstarting our musical endeavours. The Frequency Album was Naive yet fresh and will always bring back fond memories of that time. We literally sold the vinyl out the boot of our car to places like Spin Inn  Records in Manchester & Mash records in London. 
While The Frequency Album was busy getting signed we put out the Fenland Bass EP. We released it on our SOR Recordings label (SOR 002) under the artist name "Frenzied Bass". Not sure why? Probably so as not to interfere with the forthcoming ZTT releases. 
Our Records were getting played and our first Remixes came in, one from an Indie band called Habit and a track called Power. The other from 2 friends of ours from Peterborough, Dave Allen & Simon Brownlie, recording under the name Tranquillizer for Casper Pounds label Rising High.
Next up the ZTT years...


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