The Shapeshifters

Ever found yourself knee-deep in malt liquor, a mile high on weed and strung out on the Cartoon Network? Then The Shapeshifters Was Here is your new battle cry. Bubbling over with Simpsons samples and pop-culture references, the Shifters' third full-length is a sprawling effort that sucks in and then...

By David Wilkinson

December 9, 2004

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Ever found yourself knee-deep in malt liquor, a mile high on weed and strung out on the Cartoon Network? Then The Shapeshifters Was Here is your new battle cry. Bubbling over with Simpsons samples and pop-culture references, the Shifters' third full-length is a sprawling effort that sucks in and then exhales everything from rap to electro to dance-hall raga, even outdoing the eclecticism of the underground scene that spawned it. But even with such a broad range of sounds spread across its epic 80 minutes, the disc never loses focus or coasts on filler, a feat all the more remarkable in light of the band's massive, ever-morphing lineup. The collective has never been a rhyme-by-numbers hip-hop project, but the cerebral flow, astute social commentary and whacked-out creative vision of Was Here are enough to bring the group to the next level -- even if that level happens to be horizontal on the living-room floor.

David Wilkinson

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