[Ostgut Ton]

René Pawlowitz is a very prolific man, but it tends to feel like he’ll release a handful of records in quick succession and then step out of the limelight for awhile. Luckily, we’re in the middle of a bountiful harvest of Pawlowitzian music, as he released the killer fifth Equalized a couple months ago, a Shed 12″ in February, and now a 12″ for Ostgut Ton under new alias, The Traveller (not to mention a couple odds and sods along the way). With what seems like two or three new aliases each year, a new name to look out for is no surprise, but the name itself is rather interesting. Unlike his similarly titled 2010 LP for Ostgut, wherein Shed strung together an eclectic set of sketches that diverged from his past work into a cohesive whole, this record by The Traveller seems to be a bit Shed-by-the-numbers. Instead of traveling through the varied bins at Hard Wax for his sonic inspiration, The Traveller stays firmly within the “Shed” tab in the middle of the store, sounding similar to a number of his other identities, but not really creating a new one.

Usually that might be a problem, but when you’re Herr Pawlowitz, it works out. His multiple personalities let him please the fans with one name while getting weirder and weirder with another; so while Shed has been off making twisted jungle for Modeselektor’s 50 Weapons, The Traveller has taken up the task of making the DJs and dancers happy. “A100” fills up the A-side and sounds like it could be Equalized #006, all pounding, peak-time percussion and distant, Detroit-infused rave melodies. “BER” on the other side sounds like a beefed-up version of one of The Traveller‘s (the album, not the artist) more melodic sketches, and “Bypass” harkens back to the no-nonsense techno we got with Shedding The Past. So while we don’t necessarily get Shed at his most imaginative, we do get a fairly potent platter of techno à la Pawlowitz — the kind of record you would give to a friend as an introduction to the wonderful world of myriad pseudonyms and stamped white labels that is Shed.