Where to start with Shakatak
Start with You Never Know — Drivin' hard, 1981. That is the track sitting closest to the centre of all 10 Shakatak tracks in Zubissou Sounds — a listening room of 14,971 tracks placed one at a time by hand, not an algorithm.
This page is not a discography and not a ranking. It describes exactly one thing: the 10 Shakatak tracks that one person put in one room, and where they sit relative to each other. The starting point above is chosen by a rule you can check — of the 10 tracks, it is the one nearest the average position on the four knobs the room runs on. Nothing here calls any record better than any other.
Every track is filed under smooth jazz; nothing here crosses into another genre.
The head/body knob swings 69 points across these tracks, the widest of the four — it is the axis this artist actually travels along in this room.
Three ways in
The one track, if you only play one
You Never Know — Drivin' hard, 1981. Of the 10 Shakatak tracks here, this one sits closest to the average of all of them across the four knobs the room runs on. It is the least surprising thing in the collection, which is exactly what an entry point should be.
If you want the cerebral end
Introduction — Live in Japan, 1984. The lowest head/body reading of any Shakatak track in the room (1 out of 100). This is as far towards cerebral as the collection goes.
If you want the groove end
Day by Day (feat. Al Jarreau) — City Rhythm, 1985. The highest head/body reading here, at 70 out of 100 — a 69-point swing across the collection towards groove.
Where Shakatak sits in the room
Zubissou Sounds does not have playlists or genres you click. It has knobs. Every track carries a position on each one, set by hand when the track was added, and you find music by setting the room to a state rather than by searching for a name. These are Shakatak's average coordinates and the range they cover.
| Knob | Average | Range | Low → high |
|---|---|---|---|
| mood | 47 | 27–70 | melancholy → euphoric |
| energy | 42 | 21–70 | ambient → driving |
| density | 42 | 25–60 | sparse → wall |
| head · body | 44 | 1–70 | cerebral → groove |
All four run 0–100. They are placed by a person, not derived from audio analysis or from any streaming service's feature data.
What is here, record by record
| Album | Year | Tracks |
|---|---|---|
| Drivin' hard | 1981 | 3 |
| City Rhythm | — | 2 |
| Live in Japan | 1984 | 2 |
| The Best Of | 2014 | 1 |
| Da Makani | 1988 | 1 |
| Golden Wings | 1987 | 1 |
Every Shakatak track in the room
| Track | Album | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Lumiere | Drivin' hard | 1981 |
| Waves | Drivin' hard | 1981 |
| You Never Know | Drivin' hard | 1981 |
| Dark Is the Night | Live in Japan | 1984 |
| Introduction | Live in Japan | 1984 |
| Day by Day (feat. Al Jarreau) | City Rhythm | 1985 |
| Lazy | Golden Wings | 1987 |
| Pastel Shade | Da Makani | 1988 |
| City Rhythm | City Rhythm | 2008 |
| Night Birds | The Best Of | 2014 |
Near neighbours in this room
These are the artists whose average knob position sits nearest to Shakatak's in this room. It is a coordinate match, not a claim that they sound alike.
- Where to start with Hiroshima — smooth jazz, 24 tracks
- Where to start with Pat Metheny — jazz, 17 tracks
- Where to start with Elmiene — r&b, 11 tracks
What the open databases say
MusicBrainz lists Shakatak as a group, from London, the United Kingdom and formed in 1980. Its contributors tag the artist jazz-funk, smooth jazz, brit funk and jazz fusion. These are the open database's facts, not mine — you can check them against the MusicBrainz entry.
Questions
How many Shakatak tracks are in Zubissou Sounds?
There are 10, across 6 albums. 10 of them carry a date, running from 1981 to 2014. That is the whole of what this room holds — it is one person's collection, not a discography.
Is this a best-of, or a ranking?
No. Nothing here is ranked and no track is called better than another. The starting point is picked by arithmetic — the track closest to the centre of all the others on four measured axes — and the rule is printed above so you can disagree with it.
Where do the knob numbers come from?
They are set by hand, one track at a time, by the person who added the track. They are not audio analysis and not a Spotify feature. Mood, energy, density and the head/body balance each run 0 to 100. All 10 of these tracks have been read individually — nothing on this page is running on a default.
Can I listen to these here?
Not yet from this page. Zubissou Sounds is in private beta — the room itself plays through Spotify, and 10 of these 10 tracks are matched to a Spotify ID and ready to play the moment you are in. The waitlist form is at the bottom of this page.