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Shed's second album for Ostgut Ton is an interesting one, it is steeped in a solid pedigree of techno music - especially the stuff that came out of the UK in the mid Nineties - but doesn't connect the dots in an obvious fashion to make another one of those hackneyed "DJ journey" full lengths. Instead, he takes the road less traveled, and while he could of used a little editing in places and left some of the filler off this platter, The Traveller takes a bold ambitious dive into the wide spectrum of techno - from drum & bass and dubstep to minimal and subminimal house rave-ups. It's a jagged ride, and frankly a little boring in places, but one that speaks volumes for the popular artist's growing body of challenging work.

Opening with "STP 2", Shed introduces the album's most common motif - brief interludes of ambient and semi-ambient music used to set up the album's dance floor singles. "The Bot", "Atmo-Action, and the album's title track fall into this trap as well. These side passages, while technically interesting, do little to advance the plot and could have just as easily been left off the program.

Another quirk is the tendency for many of the tracks on the album to begin with a beautiful flourishing of melodies and rush of arpeggios only to give way to an uninspired collage of random ideas that seem to noodle around never reaching any musical conclusion. It's the great lacking in today's electronic music and Ostgut Ton has been one of the bigger offenders in this realm and Shed's work is rife with it. Pick a track, "...Can Feel It.", "Mayday", "Final Experiment", the problem is everywhere on the album. It is as if he's too busy trying to appeal to the narrow niches the critics who cover the genre have painted themselves and the artists gullible enough to crawl down those holes with them in to.

That leaves a void that the album's fair share of good tracks have to battle through. "Keep Time" trots out some vintage late Nineties breaks to open the album, "44A (Hard Wax forever!)" is the album's shining moment but also tad cliched sounding much like every other release in Ostgut Ton. "HRDRTM" and "My R-Class" bring the vintage techno thump in a good way while "Hello Bleep!" updates the sound with rolling snares and quirky break beats. Most surprising, and definitely a fitting conclusion for this rambling full length, "Leave Things" closes the album with good ol' sci -fi drum & bass. It's a puzzling turn and yet one that has the artist saying, "I love techno - all of it - you should, too". On The Traveller, Shed mostly succeeds in conveying this message.

Artist: Shed Title: The Traveller LP Label: Ostgut Ton Tracklist 01. STP 2 02. Keep Time 03. The Bot 04. Atmo – Action 05. 44A (Hard Wax forever!) 06. ... Can't Feel it. 07. Mayday 08. No Way! 09. HDRTM 10. My R-Class 11. Final Experiment 12. The Traveller 13. Hello Bleep! 14. Leave Things www.ostgut.de/label/ www.myspace.com/sheddingthepast Our Rating: 6/10