Shape Shifter UK on riffage.com

I was recently turned on to riffage.com, the latest downloadable mp3 site on the web, through a bandmate. Fearing “riffage” was an allusion to 80’s Heavy Metal, I was a bit hesitant to check it out. My doubts were soon to put to rest, however, as I saw that Riffage had a contemporary look and feel, with colorful techno-styled graphics (think orange and purple), lots of embedded Flash files, front page feature stories, and constantly updating content. 

There were a plethora of navigational choices from the entryway, making my first contact with the site almost daunting, but I decided to begin with what seemed the obvious choice; “Get Music Now!” This was where I ran into the Featured Artist Section, which highlighted Shape Shifter UK as the Electronic/Techno artist for the period. As he also had 4 tracks included on their Electronic Top 40, he seemed a promising artist.

I quickly downloaded the 7 free mp3s listed, with little or no trouble. However, I kept receiving error messages when I attempted to purchase any of the other 4 tracks. Thinking that the mp3s might also appear on the band’s official home page, I checked out the Band Info Section and clicked on a link which turned out to be an mp3.com page. There I located a free download of one of the purchasable Riffage tracks, plus 3 other free tracks which weren’t listed at Riffage. Now armed with 10 free mp3s, I had a healthy 58 minute playlist –including 6 of the 10 tracks which appear on the Shape Shifter UK cd entitled “Fears and Emotions” (currently available only as a DAM cd on mp3.com).

In Paul Sumner-Williams own words, Shape Shifter UK “cover{s} the spectrum of the underground dance scene {with} a blend of Techno, House, Breaks, Drum n Bass and Ambient.” I would have to agree with this statement, but further clarify that the type of House music Sumner-Williams writes is generally of the Trance variety, unfortunately my least favorite type. Shape Shifter’s songs are never overly long, clocking in at roughly 6 minutes on average, and the compositions seem more listening oriented, than club focused. Still, I could easily imagine hearing some of the more banging Techno tunes — “Fires of Hell” and “Wobbly Ground,” in particular — or even the Progressive track, “Illusion,” at a rave.

I found his Breaks and Jungle-influenced songs to be pretty enjoyable on the whole, having a fairly ambient bend and laid-back tempo to them. There are traces of Techno stylings which makes me hesitate to call them Drum n Bass, as he does. I’d almost call them Intelligent Jungle, because of the bleepy sounds he favors, but the programming isn’t as intense as say, Photek. A few tracks are almost neatly split between a Progressive and Breaks/Jungle feel, particularly “The Snake Charmer” and “Believe in Me.” This discussion points to Sumner-Williams’ statement that he’s “trying to break the mold of commercial dance music” by blending the various genres together, and in so far as that goes, he is quite successful.

My favorite tracks would have to be “Introduction to the Future,” which is an appropriately spacey number with nice pads, a catchy bleepy synth lead and deep piano line, and “Distant Voices,” which features an eastern-inspired female vocal loop and a sample of thunder claps over a slow sweeping analog lead and thumpy bassline. “Making Sense of it All” is also a catchy tune, with spastic breaks and a rolling bassline. “The Haunting” has some nice percussive elements as well, but I wasn’t as excited about the synth lines or sounds.

I should also mention that I was impressed by the sound quality of the mp3 files themselves, being very clean and of a good volume level. 

Over all, I’m happy to have discovered both Shape Shifter and Riffage, and look forward to monitoring the progress of both as this new age of technology advances and brings us in closer contact with artists via the web.

[Originally posted by RadioSpy, a subsidiary of GameSpy.com]