Shapeshifter - Soulstice

Do you really need me to tell you what this sounds like? It’s called Soulstice. Punny names like “souled out” and “phunked up” stopped being cool in the 90s, if indeed they ever were. Not only that, the vanilla vision of universal unity an album title like that inevitably represents died alongside. The news obviously hasn’t made it to New Zealand yet, where Shapeshifter have made an album of LTJ Bukem-style drum and bass smeared with execrable new-age lyrics like “if we open up our mind, we see that everything exists inside”. The generic rhythms and beige sweeps of synth wash over the unlucky listener like a Homebase colour chart, and the 15 tracks make flying visits to reggae, funk and bland “chillout” like a cheap round-the-world ticket. Music for optimistic people with dreadlocks to discover themselves to on a beach in Thailand, or at least in a flatshare in Shepherd’s Bush. [Euan Ferguson]