Shadow Government has a host of influences, but overall the guiding principle behind creating music for the Shadow Government is deconstruction. This is manifested in the form of sampling and rearranging pre-recorded riffs with added instrumentation and beat re-manipulation. Take a 20-30 (sometimes 40) year old record that has rarely or even never been played, or a record where the original musicians have long deserted their respective musical careers or have since died, and you have a prime specimen for Shadow Government manipulation. We do not care about glorifying past hits or remixing ABBA - mainly forgotten artifacts (with a few exceptions). This is our prime inspiration, through which most songs of ours are created.

If one had to pinpoint our style, you could say we are a mishmash of Psychedelic rock,
New-Wave/Post-Punk styled from the late seventies and early eighties, novelty music, synthpop/industrial, ethnic music, soul/funk, film soundtracks, and electronica. Add to that whatever else we happen to be in the mood for. Classics like Can, Cabaret Voltaire, Kraftwerk, Eno, The Fall, Bowie, Gary Numan, Wire, Ennio Morricone, and a gaggle of other modern artists are amongst the idols at the Holy Temple of Worship for the Shadow Government.

Some contemporaries that SG could possibly be compared to in some form or another: Add N To X, Sigh (Japan), AIR, Boards of Canada, Secret Chiefs Three, Fischer Spooner, Trans Am, I Am Spoonbender, Godspeed You Black Emperor!, Ladytron, Meat Beat Manifesto, DJ Shadow, Cornelius (Japan). By the way, these are all good artists. You should check them out.