Since debuting in 2004 with "Stalker" on Mordant Music, Lancashire, England native Sam Shackleton continually developed a fragile-sounding yet densely detailed style of sample-based electronic music that was neither straight techno nor dubstep, though those were the two styles most frequently assigned to him. From 2005 through 2008, he and fellow producer Appleblim ran the Skull Disco label, an outlet for ten vinyl releases, including his own "Blood on My Hands"; a two-part, 20-minute remix from Ricardo Villalobos placed him on the radar of casual followers of underground dance music. Two years after its release, Shackleton issued his lengthiest title to date, Three EPs (2009), a triple-vinyl pack also issued on CD via Perlon. In late 2010, just after launching another imprint (Woe to the Septic Heart!), he mixed the 55th volume of the Fabric series, made with an array of his all-new productions.

In 2011, he signed to Honest Jon's and released 12"s Deadman and Fireworks. He then collaborated with dubstep innovator Pinch for a self-titled album on the same label. This was followed in 2012 by a series of three Drawbar Organ EPs on Woe to the Septic Heart!, as well as the full-length Music for the Quiet Hour, which also included the tracks from the EPs. Freezing Opening Thawing and the EP trilogy Deliverance Series arrived in 2014. In 2015, he released a 12" of his remixes of Japanese noise rock group Nisennenmondai. He returned to Honest Jon's in 2016 with Devotional Songs, a collaboration with Italian actor/vocalist Ernesto Tomasini. This was followed in early 2017 by Sferic Ghost Transmits, a collaboration with Vengeance Tenfold. ~ Andy Kellman, Rovi