Shifted

Shifted's latest outing is the sound of hard and fidgety industrial techno mediated and altered by an atmosphere of submersion. Though the pulsing sonic rubble occasionally surfaces to resounding club-ready crescendos, very little of the clear-cut dance floor orientation remains of the shadowy producer's well-known EPs and singles. That's not to say the album is soft; all the tracks have the same relentless urgency and anxious hypnotism that has typified his previous cuts. A precise balance characterizes Under A Single Banner. On one hand the album seeks to explore the darker experimental sound that has so recently inundated techno, yet Shifted deftly avoids falling into self-indulgent obscurity or well-worn industrial tropes. Under A Single Banner has all the characteristics of a great techno album: it's a unified statement, explored to its limit and engaging to the end.