Bleep

Shifted moves things up a gear on Appropriation Stories, his new LP released on long-term ally Dominick Fernow's Hospital Productions, fitting in nicely with the labels core krew of avant-techno practitioners Silent Servant, Ron Morelli, Alessandro Cortini, Clay Rendering & Fernow's long-standing Vatican Shadow and Prurient projects.

Following on from the gritty, concrete tombs of his Bed Of Nails scorcher Under A Single Banner, Shifted marked a return to the razor-sharp dynamics of his early industrial bangers with the double headed cold light and monochrome EPs on his Avian imprint. Returning to the shadow of Hospital Productions, Appropriation Stories sets out to explore his sound while pulling influence from his cloaked in mystery past in the drum & bass scene of the early to late 00's.

While the album is undoubtedly techno, the skeletal reference points of the snare patterns are more in line with the abstract notions pushed forward by those who tend to operate on the outer fringes of techno; BMB's breakbeat punch in the gut chaos, Mika Vainio's icy blood on the tracks minimalism and indeed Hospital head doc Fernow's militant stripes of his Vatican Shadow project.

Each track rips apart a four-to-the-floor structure with a spiderweb-like framework of techstep concrete, where the snares roll at a pace that make them feel like they are rushing harder than the cavernous kick. The bone dry, claustrophobic feel of a 14 hour stretch dancing in the basements of Shifted's home city Berlin, serotonin and sweat lost a long time the night before. Where his debut Crossed Paths explored a streamlined sound and Under A Single Banner propelled his Alexander Lewis and Covered In Sand projects to the forefront, it's on Appropriation Stories that Shifted finds a full focus scope into the various modes of his musical output, going back to his drum & bass roots in the hope of finding a better way forward.