- Meditative techno from a master of the style.
- Each new Shifted record feels like a snapshot of his current headspace. Within his world of dense, cerebral dance music, this headspace can vary a lot. His latest lands on Stroboscopic Artefacts, a techno label whose style has always seemed like a match for Shifted's intricate productions. The Light Touch is part of the label's Totem series, a place for "wider and warmer" sounds. That remit seems to have inspired Shifted, who delivers three tracks of repetitive, focused techno.
On The Light Touch, Shifted highlights percussion, with three tracks that are more about rhythm than atmosphere. "The Light Touch" is buoyed by what feels like gusts of wind in the background—think the modular soundscapes of other Shifted projects like Alexander Lewis—while "Seel" has an implacable droning sound behind the layered, pounding groove. This is hard techno, but it's not rigid. The graceful "Mixen" has melodies that stretch and disappear above a rhythm that sounds like it's trying to wear you down. It might also pull you into its heady zone.
TracklistA1 The Light Touch
B1 Seel
B2 Mixen