Simon Shackleton is a British composer, producer, and DJ whose work defies easy categorisation. With a career spanning more than three decades, his music traverses a wide emotional and stylistic range, drawing from electronic, cinematic, alternative, and underground influences. From euphoric dancefloor moments to deeply personal compositions for film, television, and immersive live shows, Simon's work is united by a spirit of exploration and emotional depth.
Having built a global reputation under various aliases, including Elite Force, Lunatic Calm, and Zodiac Cartel, Simon has performed at some of the world's most iconic clubs and festivals, from Burning Man to Fabric, while simultaneously building an impressive catalogue of music for the screen, with credits on blockbuster films, hit video games, and television campaigns.
Rejecting the confines of genre, his creative output is fuelled by a passion for storytelling through sound, whether crafting epic DJ sets, introspective albums, or evocative cinematic scores. Simon's work resonates across scenes and styles, offering listeners a distinctive voice that is as versatile as it is emotionally authentic.
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With over three decades in the music industry, Simon Shackleton is a boundary-pushing composer, producer, DJ and storyteller whose work moves between cinematic electronica, immersive live performance, emotionally driven songwriting and genre-fluid DJ sets. Known for his richly textured soundworlds and restless creative evolution, Simon’s music blends elements of electronica, breakbeat, bass music, alternative songwriting and cinematic composition, always balancing emotional depth with sonic experimentation.
Simon has released music on respected labels including Anjunadeep and Soundgarden, as well as through his own Stereophoenix imprint. His work has drawn comparisons to artists such as Nine Inch Nails, Massive Attack, UNKLE and Thom Yorke, while retaining a voice that remains distinctly his own. As a self-contained artist, Simon engineers, produces, records, performs, mixes and masters his own material, maintaining close creative control over every stage of the process.
His 2025 album The Shadowmaker marked his most personal and cinematic work to date. Written with his wife, filmmaker and storyteller Chele Gutek, the project wove intimate songwriting, evocative vocals and atmospheric production into a deeply autobiographical exploration of resilience, vulnerability, loss and transformation. The accompanying Shadowmaker Show blended live music, visuals and storytelling into a multimedia performance that expanded the album into a wider emotional and visual world.
Following The Shadowmaker, Simon continued to explore the space between songcraft, electronica and the dancefloor through The Shadowmaker: Reconstructed, an album of reinterpretations that reshaped the original material into deeper, more rhythmic and hypnotic forms. That process has since fed into a wider phase of creative renewal, including the return of Elite Force through a new Redux series and the development of Reverie, a forthcoming body of work focused on late-night atmosphere, cinematic electronics, broken rhythms and emotional immersion.
From early classical training to worldwide tours with Lunatic Calm, from iconic DJ residencies to extended One Series marathon sets, Simon’s musical journey has always been driven by movement, reinvention and a refusal to remain inside fixed genre boundaries. His music has appeared in major films including The Matrix and Spider-Man, as well as video games such as MotorStorm and FIFA, cementing his reputation for high-impact, emotionally charged electronic music across screen, stage and club culture.
Looking ahead, Simon’s focus is on building a connected creative ecosystem across his various worlds: the cinematic singer-songwriter terrain of The Shadowmaker, the evolving electronic language of Reverie, the renewed physicality of Elite Force, the archival force of Lunatic Calm, and the storytelling-led DJ journey of The One Series and CHPTR. Across all of it, the through-line remains the same: music as atmosphere, memory, movement and transformation.
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Elite Force, the groundbreaking alias of Simon Shackleton, has been at the forefront of electronic music since 1996. Widely regarded as a key figure in the evolution of the breakbeat and nu-skool breaks movements, Elite Force emerged through Simon’s pioneering “tech-funk” sound - an eclectic fusion of house, techno, electro and breaks that helped redefine dancefloors around the world.
Early releases on his Elite Force, the groundbreaking alias of Simon Shackleton, has been at the forefront of electronic music since 1996. Widely regarded as a key figure in the evolution of the breakbeat and nu-skool breaks movements, Elite Force emerged through Simon’s pioneering “tech-funk” sound - an eclectic fusion of house, techno, electro and breaks that helped redefine dancefloors around the world.
Early releases on his Fused & Bruised label established Elite Force as one of the most distinctive voices in underground electronic music, blending breakbeat energy with experimental electronica, cinematic textures and a fearless disregard for genre boundaries. By the early 2000s, Elite Force had become a globally recognised name, championed by artists including Fatboy Slim, Laurent Garnier and James Zabiela.
In 2010, the release of Revamped introduced the concept of “revamps” - innovative reconstructions that combined elements from multiple tracks to create entirely new works. The album dominated charts worldwide, earning Simon a Beatport Award for the best-selling breaks track of the year, while Elite Force also swept the Breakspoll Awards, taking home Best Producer and Best Label for U&A Recordings.
Beyond the studio, Elite Force became renowned for marathon DJ performances and genre-spanning sets that took Simon to festivals and clubs across Australia, China, Europe, Russia, North America and beyond. Appearances at Glastonbury, Burning Man and Coachella cemented his reputation as one of electronic music’s most adventurous and dynamic DJs.
Elite Force’s music has also enjoyed extensive success across film, television, advertising and video games, with placements in productions including The Matrix, MotorStorm: Apocalypse, Pro Evolution Soccer and Driveclub. In 2025, his track Cross The Line was licensed to the Paramount+ series Mobland, further expanding a catalogue that continues to be sought after for high-energy, cinematic and sync-focused projects.
Today, Simon Shackleton continues to evolve the Elite Force project in new directions. Recent Redux releases revisit and reconstruct classic material from across his catalogue, rebuilding older tracks from the ground up through a contemporary production lens. Alongside this, forthcoming projects such as Reverie explore a deeper, more atmospheric and emotionally immersive space, blending cinematic electronica, broken rhythms and late-night sound design.
While the sound continues to evolve, the philosophy remains unchanged: to challenge expectations, transcend genre and create electronic music that is as emotionally resonant as it is physically powerful.
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Lunatic Calm, the seminal electronic-rock project founded by Simon Shackleton and Howie Saunders, gained worldwide recognition in the late 1990s and early 2000s for its high-octane sound and explosive live performances. Best known for the iconic track Leave You Far Behind - immortalized in films like The Matrix and Charlie's Angels - Lunatic Calm fused breakbeats, industrial grit, and cinematic intensity into a sound that was uniquely their own.
In 2025, Simon is breathing new life into the Lunatic Calm catalogue with a series of fresh releases, including a powerful 2025 remake of Leave You Far Behind and the forthcoming compilation More Lunatic Than Calm Vol. 1 set for release in August 2025. These new editions honour the band's legacy while introducing the music to a new generation of listeners and sync opportunities.
With anthemic energy, festival-tested grooves, and a legacy that continues to resonate, Lunatic Calm remains a vital part of Simon Shackleton’s musical DNA, bridging the past and future of high-impact electronic music.