Backpackers, this one's for you. Jarrod Linne has been weaving his way around the headier producers on the scene the past few months, playing shows with ill.Gates, Kraddy, Mux Mool, Eliot Lipp, and plainly the influence has rubbed off--though he's always had a cerebral edge.

The new Shy Guy Says release, EP 2.1, is a stunning four-track phantasmagoria, an aural apparition that one can slip into as easily as a warm bath or a fever dream, both beautiful and devastating all at once. Alternately eerie and sublime, each track tells its own tale with radically diverse sections--an artform nearly lost with today's "two drop" bass formula.

"Lights at Night" sneaks up like a cat burglar, stealing time and keystrokes on the repeat button (no, there's no repeat button on Soundcloud, it's like a metaphor or something). "Horoscope999999" studied at the Shigeto school of swagger, and Dibiase institute for drum technique. Slanted rhythms splay against pure hip-hop bliss. Like its namesake, "Sea Legs" is earned. Wobble at first, but gain your balance as you gently rock from side to side on the high seas. But dive right into closer "Blue Dream." This velvety gem imagines Nujabes reborn as the AQUA2 undersea robot, gently gliding along the ocean floor collecting samples. It's crisp, cool, and everything you'd want from a production purist.

Don't be fooled, Shy Guy doesn't just lay back in the cut. EP 2.1 may be the perfect background for an after work session, but if you head out to one of his live performances, you'll be pleasantly surprised by how hard this masked figure gets down. Catch him tonight (Oct. 19) at the Diamond Pub Concert Hall in Louisville, KY as part of the No Hostages tour with Sluggo, Helicopter Showdown and Mantis, and then at the beginning of next month, November 2nd, in his hometown of Bloomington, IN with Adventure Club.

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