Review: Last year, Shifted owned techno with numerous 12"s under a variety of aliases complementing his curatorial efforts at the head of Avian and of course Crossed Paths, his debut album for Mote Evolver. In turns spooky, bleak and hypnotic, full of dub techno attitude, post-minimal crackle and droning rhythms, it made quite an impression. This follow-up for Bed of Nails treads a similar path, flitting between droning soundscapes, unsettling grooves and intense, murky compositions. While there are tougher, dancefloor-centric workouts (see title track "Under A Single Banner", "Pulse Incomplete" and "Burning Tyres"), these come cloaked in a murky fog of clandestine atmospherics. It feels like the unheard soundtrack to a black and white documentary on urban decay, fronted by a paranoid insomniac. It is, then, both unsettling and quietly impressive.
Review: Shifted's identity remains a mystery, but crucially, he does not come from the small coterie that has dominated UK techno over the past twenty years. Like the signature image he uses, a grey, shadowy creature creeping through a snowy forest, his infiltration of the sound has been stealthy and understated. In many ways, his lack of connection with techno, his automatic outsider status, has allowed him to effect an entrance into a hitherto new terrain. Like his releases on Mote Evolver and his own Avian imprint, Crossed Paths tingles and fizzes with an atmospheric sensibility that monochrome techno often lacks. All of this is made possible by his distinctive sound design; intricate and subtle, yet at the same time both functional and multi-faceted, where all of these divergent paths cross, you'll find Shifted.
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