Veteran of the Canadian techno music industry, DJ/producer Mike Shannon is founder of the respected Cynosure Records. His first album, Slight of Hand, was picked up by Force Inc in the early 00s, and he’s since released music on Dumb-Unit, ~scape, Wagon Repair and more recently on Hawtin’s Plus8 Records. Shannon’s acclaimed third full length, Memory Tree, was released in 2008.

Raised in Kitchener Ontario, Shannon began mixing records at twelve, encouraged by his father. At fifteen his turntable skills were getting him gigs at local underground parties and clubs. With the help of Detroit’s influential WJLB radio station which turned him on to U.R., Juan Atkins and Kevin Saunderson - influences that still play a big role in his approach to music today – Shannon’s reach began expanding and he was soon managing the orders at his local record store Speed Records.
 
In the mid-90s Shannon founded Pulse Productions, an organisation which grew from a vehicle for small multi-media events for local artists into to the weekly Phunktion parties, which brought artists such as Spencer Kincy, Boo Williams, Panty Tec, Traxx, Slam, and Kevin Yost to Kitchener's Club Abstract. In 1999, he was offered a residency at Techno Fridays at Industry Nightclub in Toronto and in the same year he launched Cynosure Recordings. He re-located to Montreal soon afterward to join the city's burgeoning techno scene fostered by the annual Mutek festival. There he befriended Jeff Milligan. Shannon’s Cynosure and Milligan’s Revolver Records – also launched in 1999 – became closely connected. Since 1999, Cynosure and Revolver Canada have collectively released a catalogue primarily consisting of Canadian artists and friends including Montreal's Akufen, Mole, Mossa and Deadbeat, Toronto’s Adam Marshall, Tomas Jirku and Pan/tone, together raising the profile of Canada’s electronic music scene by providing then unknown producers such as Akufen and Deadbeat an international platform to spread their distinctive sound internationally.
 
In this early peri-millennial period, Shannon began his transition from DJ to producer, releasing his first 12” on Cynosure, a collaboration with Jay Hunsberger under the name Sunaj Assassins in 2000. In 2001 Milligan and Shannon founded a booking agency called Revolver and landed a very popular residency at Stereo Club in Montreal. With Cynosure quickly gaining a reputation for cutting edge productions, Shannon embarked on his first European tour with Jeff Milligan later the same year. While touring, Shannon caught the attention of the Force Inc. Music Works imprint, which signed his full-length debut, Slight of Hand (2002), an album that cemented his reputation as an up-and-coming Minimal Techno producer. In 2003 Shannon relocated to Santiago, Chile and began to work on a down-tempo project that resulted in 2005’s Possible Conclusions to Stories That Never End.
 
In 2007, Shannon relocated to Berlin after an extended stay in Valencia. His third full-length, Memory Tree, was released by another notable Canadian export - Richie Hawtin’s Plus 8 Records – in 2008.
Shannon has also recorded as John Shananigans, Sid Dithers and Mike Y Juanself.
 
> www.myspace.com/cynrecordings
 
Appearances:
> CTM.09 > PASS THE FLAME