Terence Fixmer - Shifting Signals (2LP)

Terence Fixmer has always walked a sharp line between EBM steel and techno hypnosis, and Shifting Signals finds him right where he thrives. Released in 2021 on Mute, it arrives as the follow-up to Through the Cortex and feels like a tightening of the screws. The palette is familiar if you have followed him since the Fixmer/McCarthy days. Pummeling kicks, serrated bass pressure, tense synth figures that seem to glow cold blue. But this one is leaner, more patient, more drawn to the long game.

You hear it immediately in Close Up, one of the tracks that teased the record in advance. The low end doesn’t rush. It stalks. A clipped phrase and granular hiss brush against the grid while the bassline drags you toward a break that never quite snaps. Fixmer understands tension as movement, not release, and it works because he always keeps the floor in mind. He is a Berghain-tested presence, and Shifting Signals carries that room’s sense of scale. The kick feels massive, but the space around it is equally important. Everything has air, and that air has weight.

Corne de Brume is another standout, and it hints at his roots in French cold wave while staying locked to techno function. The lead is a foghorn peal that seems to bend with every bar, a small melodic gesture that grows spiky and insistent through repetition. It is the kind of track that makes you lean in at 4 a.m., not because it’s loud, but because it has a spine that never wobbles. That instinct for discipline is why Fixmer outlasted the EBM revival cycles. For him it was never a costume. It was a language.

What sets the album apart from his earlier full lengths is how meticulously it plays with grayscale. The synths are never just dry or wet. They feel brushed and scuffed, like metal that has been handled. He lets reverbs smear only to pull them back a bar later. Drum programming stays spare, though the hi-hats sometimes flicker into view like a neon sign in the rain. Vocals, if they appear at all, arrive as texture, more breath than word. He knows how to suggest a human presence without tipping the whole thing into song form.

In interviews over the years, Fixmer has talked about keeping the hardware raw, about chasing the physical push of voltage rather than a glossy sheen. You can hear that care here. Sequences bite. Filter sweeps never feel generic. He gives each sound room to tell on itself. It reads as modern minimalism rather than nostalgia. The result is a record you can file next to classic Terence Fixmer vinyl and also play next to the most current, warehouse-minded techno. It never feels stranded in time.

If you are the kind of listener who loves to track an arc across an album rather than cherry-pick singles, Shifting Signals rewards the full run. The middle third settles into slower tempos where the bass moves like a tide. By the home stretch, the grooves toughen again, as if he is reminding you why DJs lean on his cuts when a set needs backbone. That patience is why this one works so well on vinyl. The side breaks become breathers. Flip the record and the room seems to tilt a little, and the low end seems to find a new pocket.

It is also a handsome piece to own. Mute has a long history with electronic artists who value design and continuity, and it fits right in that lineage. If you prefer to buy Terence Fixmer records online, you will find Shifting Signals vinyl widely available, though it tends to disappear after a restock. I have spotted copies in a Melbourne record store and on a few shops that ship vinyl records Australia wide, and it sits well next to the other Terence Fixmer albums on vinyl that mark different phases of his sound. This one feels like a clear marker.

As a listening experience it is tight, moody, and deeply functional. Not austere, just focused. The kind of techno album that seems to breathe differently at night. If you came in through the Nitzer Ebb connection, you will hear that steel. If you came in through the modern Berlin axis, you will hear the discipline. Either way, it is an easy recommendation, and Shifting Signals vinyl is the version to live with. Put it on a good system, let the room go quiet, and that slow, heavy pulse will do the rest.