Shur-I-Kan - Points of Focus (2021)

Tom Szirtes, aka Shur-i-kan, is best known for his deep house recordings on top dance music labels such as Freerange, Lazy Days Recordings, Urbantorque, and Dark Energy. Whilst there have been many EPs and remixes over the years, albums have been relatively thin on the ground. After two Shur-i-kan LPs for Freerange, Advance (2001) and Waypoints (2004), there followed a twelve-year hiatus before Barely Breathing was released under his own name.

This new collection, Points of Focus, is inspired by the chill-out mixtapes of the 90s, such as KLF’s Chill Out album and Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works. Featuring unreleased material recorded over a fifteen-year period, the album brings together ten tracks that, at the time of writing, weren’t conceived as belonging to a single project, but as impulsive detours from the producer’s journey into deep house. However, once brought together and remastered, they became more than the sum of their parts, telling a story of their own.

Kicking off with the Burial-inspired dubstep of ‘Hollow’, we follow sonorous bass lines down secret passages and hold our breath turning into hidden corners of this varied beat- and tone-layered dreamscape. Each new discovery unfolds with a sense of wonder, from the palpable excitement of folk-tinged stomper ‘Where I Stand’, to the wry amusement of jazz-vibed ‘Eine Kleine Loungemusak’, from the hypnotic stupor of ‘Beach Life’ and ‘Ebb and Flow’ to the almost spiritual rapture of ‘Words to Say’. We float at last into a Lynch-esque ‘Slumber State’ by the waters of ‘On the River’.

Points of Focus shows off again Szirtes’ ability to seamlessly blend multiple genres and influences into a rich textual patchwork and yet retain his own unique voice. It’s an album for your inner space - so plug in, let go and enjoy this antidote to the anxiety of the outside world.