Dennis DeSantis (b. 1973) - Shifty (2001)

Dennis DeSantis is an American composer and percussionist. He grew up listening to musicians such as Stravinsky and Joni Mitchell. DeSantis has an impressive background in electronic music and has produced a number of successful techno albums. This influece can readily be heard in Shifty. While the meters and tempo modulations are complex, there always exists a subtactile pulse: a groove. As the dynamics shift, sometimes suddenly, one can also imagine opening and closing of noise gates.

Of the piece, DeSantis writes:

    “Shifty is all about messing around with the listener’s perceptions of meter and tempo. Patterns stick around for long enough to suggest that they might imply the tempo of the piece, but then are suddenly (or gradually) replaced (or displaced) by patterns that disrupt that mode of listening and assert themselves instead. The idea is to blur the lines between material that’s metrically strong and material that is syncopated.”