View source for Shaft (rave group)

{{Short description|English electronic music group}}
{{About|the early 1990s rave group|the act known for dance covers of "(Mucho Mambo) Sway" and "Mambo Italiano"|Shaft (British electronic duo)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{More citations needed|date=March 2011}}
'''Shaft''' was an English electronic music group, scoring a top 10 hit on the [[UK Singles Chart]] in December 1991 with "Roobarb & Custard".<ref name="British Hit Singles & Albums">{{cite book
| first= David
| last= Roberts
| year= 2006
| title= British Hit Singles & Albums
| edition= 19th
| publisher= Guinness World Records Limited
| location= London
| isbn= 1-904994-10-5
| page= 491}}</ref> It featured recreated [[human voice|vocal]] [[Sampling (music)|samples]] from the vintage children's television cartoon ''[[Roobarb]]'', as well as a variety of sound effects. The main contributors were the British [[record producer]]s [[Mark Pritchard (music producer)|Mark Pritchard]] and Adrian Hughes.<ref name="British Hit Singles & Albums"/>
Although the single reached the top 10 in 1991, it climbed to its highest position of No. 7 in January 1992.  The follow-up track was "Monkey", which peaked at No. 61 in July 1992.<ref name="British Hit Singles & Albums"/>
The use of samples from children's television programmes was not unique to this hit within the genre, with [[Mark Summers]] having sampled ''[[The Magic Roundabout]]'' in his early 1991 hit "[[Summers Magic]]". However, Shaft was the first dance act to reach the top 10 with a track using this type of formula. Other groups who went on later in 1992 to repeat this success were [[Urban Hype]], who reached No. 7 with "[[A Trip to Trumpton]]", and [[Smart E's]], who achieved a No. 2 hit with "[[Sesame's Treet]]". The string of similarly created [[Gramophone record|records]] were dubbed [[toytown techno]].
==References==
{{Reflist}}
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[[Category:English electronic music groups]]
[[Category:English dance music groups]]
{{electronic-band-stub}}