After a slew of EPs on Repeat and Drumpoet Community, Swiss house producer Quarion drops his debut album, and it's a belter. With each track titled after a different shade of blue, this artful fusion of deep and tech-house makes for a really engaging listen. Since his stonking 2006 debut single, "Karasu," Quarion has never drastically altered his sound, just refined it, and this is the ultimate refinement of his work so far. Where many dance albums just sound like a collection of tracks, this is a very cohesive record that makes repeated use of several distinctive elements: hypnotic, cascading synth lines that gradually modulate up and down the scale, often starting in the mid-range and gradually becoming the bass line; a range of variegated layers of synth, each with a different sound, each playing a different pattern, that weave in and out of the mix, building up to create a cavernous soundscape; and subtle-yet-insistent beats. That might not sound like much, but Quarion weaves these simple elements into something far more than the sum of their parts, as on album centerpiece "Cobalt (Plains)." With its eerie synth leads, insistent stabs, and shuffling beat, the track creates an absolutely hypnotic, enveloping groove -- exactly what you want from this sort of music. Other standouts are "Sapphire (Tessellate)," perhaps the record's most insistent track with its martial beat, spooky vocal samples, super-funky B-line, and acid squelches; and "Indigo (Aries)" with its muted percussion, pitch-bent acidic bleeps, and wiggling synth line cushioned by warm Rhodes pads. Other tracks have a more club-focused pulse, while beatless interludes bring an immersive, subaquatic feel. This is a great album. It hovers comfortably around the 120 bpm mark, making it music for grooving and head-nodding rather than anything more energetic. You can certainly dance to it, but it's just as much home-listening music, with loads of detail buried in the mix to discover on headphones. If there's any justice, Shades should bust Quarion out of the deep house ghetto and into the wider dance music consciousness.