Soft Circle's first album, 2007's Full Bloom, made for an odd, entrancing hybrid. It had moments as relaxing and soothing as a new age record, yet Soft Circle mainman Hisham Bharoocha's work in neo-no-wave acts Lightning Bolt and Black Dice meant Full Bloom occasionally strayed into darker, uglier, and more abrasive terrain.

Like many of his 21st-century contemporaries, Bharoocha suggested that pretty, meditative noise was only a few knob cranks away from becoming fearsome, plug-your-ears noise. That philosophy still drives Shore Obsessed. Take a cursory listen, though, and you might not even think it's the work of the same man who produced Full Bloom. Unlike that long, meandering album, Shore Obsessed is built out of short, tight dance songs. You can actually shake your stuff to these 10 synth-pop and disco tunes-- while singing along, no less-- which certainly isn't something you could have said about any of Bharoocha's other projects.