Shifted

Anonymity has long played a role in electronic music, particularly within techno, yet U.K. producer Shifted adopted the alias specifically to craft a fresh persona, one he eventually shed in 2014. His debut outing, the Drained EP, surfaced on Luke Slater’s Mote Evolver in 2011 and immediately sparked speculation about the unknown artist, whose only disclosed detail was a decade-plus tenure in an earlier electronic duo. Once Guy Brewer revealed himself as Shifted that year, it emerged that he had previously belonged to the drum’n’bass duo Commix. Disenchanted with that scene, Brewer turned toward techno and passed early experiments to Luke Slater. Those initial 2011 releases—on Mote Evolver, his own Avian Records, and Sigha's Our Circula Sound—quickly raised his profile. Relocating from Cambridge, U.K., to Berlin placed him amid the city’s thriving techno community, shaped by outfits such as Sandwell District and the storied Berghain nightclub. He closed 2011 with the Control EP on Mote Evolver and another record for Syndrome Z. In early 2012 he issued his first full-length, Crossed Paths, which earned praise for its deep, drone-infused approach; the album had been heralded by a split single alongside Finnish DJ and producer Samuli Kemppi. Later that year Our Circula Sound offered Sickness by Means of Clairvoyance, while Mote Evolver presented the Razors EP. With remixes, DJ engagements, and output under the Alexander Lewis and Covered in Sand monikers occupying his time, Shifted maintained a low release schedule throughout 2013. The year opened with The Cold Light, Pts. 1 & 2 on Avian, and a subsequent encounter with Dominick Fernow (Prurient, Vatican Shadow) led to the second album, Under a Single Banner, appearing on Fernow’s Bed of Nails label by year’s end. Production remained sparse in 2014 aside from scattered remixes and the two-part Arrangements in Monochrome EP, which closed the year on Avian. Brewer maintained an active DJ and live schedule through 2015 before returning in 2016 with the three-track Six Steps to Resurgence on his Avian imprint. A selection of previously unheard material also surfaced on Drifting Over, the label Brewer established expressly for his own work. His third album, Appropriation Stories, arrived at the close of 2016 once again via Dominic Fernow’s Hospital Productions.