Back in the heyday of rave culture during the early-to-mid ‘90s, Shem “Slacker” McCauley was regarded as one of the most in-demand DJs in progressive house music. Then, he gave up the scene as quickly as he appeared, moved to Bangkok, got himself a real 9-to-5 job, and was thought to have packed up his turntables and sequencer for good. But after sitting out most of the 2000s, Shem began to feel the music bug shimmying in his brain once again. And soon enough, he found himself sitting in the food court of a Bangkok mall composing an entire album on his laptop. Start a New Life is the fruits of that extended lunch break, a collection of downtempo electronic music that fans of the KLF’s Chill Out and the Boards of Canada catalog will most certainly want to look into picking up.