The Shapeshifters

West London house duo The Shapeshifters served as an essential conduit between underground club music and the pop charts in the 2000s. Swedish techno producer Max Reich met the British-born A&R exec Simon Marlin in Gothenburg in 1996, and, for a few years, they concentrated on Reich’s music under a variety of aliases. Their creative partnership blossomed in 2003 with “Lola’s Theme”, a buoyant, disco-sampling floor-filler. After getting picked up for major-label release the following year, the track bounced from beachside parties at Miami’s Winter Music Conference up to No. 1 on the UK singles chart. With their 2006 album, Sound Advice, they further developed the mix of downtempo soul and funky house that would become The Shapeshifters’ calling card, helping set the stage for the disco revival in pop and dance. Since 2017, Marlin has helmed the project solo, but the essence of The Shapeshifters’ glittery, larger-than-life sound lives on in strings-and horns-soaked anthems like “Finally Ready” and “YOLO”.