diff --git a/flow-state/src/scenes/shader/isometric-blocks.js b/flow-state/src/scenes/shader/isometric-blocks.js
index 6597edd..d50eeed 100644
--- a/flow-state/src/scenes/shader/isometric-blocks.js
+++ b/flow-state/src/scenes/shader/isometric-blocks.js
@@ -27,6 +27,16 @@ export const isometricBlocks = {
         // enough to nothing. Displacing them per cell puts the SONG in the
         // arrangement rather than only in the elevation.
         scatter: { type: 'float', range: [0, 0.85],   default: 0.3,  uniform: 'u_scatter', bias: 'density' },
+        // Extra disturbance AT the song's focal points, on top of the scatter
+        // everywhere — not instead of it.
+        //
+        // It was a trade at first, spending the scatter budget near the focus
+        // and calming the rest, and that measured worse than no focus at all:
+        // 0.049 down to 0.037. Most of the field went back onto the rigid
+        // lattice and took the orientation variety with it, 0.164 to 0.105. The
+        // focal point has to be something the field gains, not something the
+        // rest of it pays for.
+        gather:  { type: 'float', range: [0, 1.6],     default: 0.8,  uniform: 'u_gather' },
         plan:    { type: 'float', range: [0.2, 0.5],   default: 0.4,  uniform: 'u_plan' },
         tilt:    { type: 'float', range: [0.35, 0.75], default: 0.55, uniform: 'u_isoTilt' },
         light:   { type: 'float', range: [0, 1.4],     default: 0.65, uniform: 'u_light' },
@@ -88,14 +98,29 @@ vec4 scene(vec2 uv, vec2 p) {
         float row = rowHere - float(7 - j);
         vec2 cell = vec2(colX, row);
 
-        // Each cell steps off its slot by a fixed amount of its own, so the
-        // plan of the field is the song's rather than the lattice's. Bounded
-        // under half a cell: past that blocks cross each other and the
-        // isometric read — which is the whole point of the scene — breaks down.
-        vec2 offset = (hash22(cell + u_seed + 3.7) - 0.5) * u_scatter * cw * 0.9;
+        // Where this block would stand if nothing disturbed it, so the focus can
+        // be asked about the cell rather than about the pixel.
+        float restY = (row + stagger) * tilt * cw;
+        float focus = focusField(vec2((colX + 0.5) * cw - 0.5, restY));
 
-        float groundY = (row + stagger) * tilt * cw + offset.y; // where this cell meets the ground
-        float h = columnHeight(cell, t) * (1.0 + offset.x * 2.0);
+        // Each cell steps off its slot by a fixed amount of its own, and how far
+        // depends on how close it is to what the song is looking at. Spread
+        // evenly this is noise on a grid; concentrated, the lattice stands
+        // except where it is disturbed, and the field acquires a subject.
+        //
+        // Bounded under half a cell: past that blocks cross each other and the
+        // isometric read — which is the whole point of the scene — breaks down.
+        float amount = u_scatter * (1.0 + focus * u_gather * 2.0);
+        vec2 offset = (hash22(cell + u_seed + 3.7) - 0.5) * amount * cw * 0.9;
+
+        float groundY = restY + offset.y;           // where this cell meets the ground
+        // Blocks rise toward the focus as well as scattering around it, so the
+        // disturbance is something you can see in the skyline rather than only
+        // in the plan — and rising changes WHERE the frame's energy is, which
+        // scattering alone did not.
+        float h = columnHeight(cell, t)
+                * (1.0 + offset.x * 2.0)
+                * (1.0 + focus * u_gather * u_focusPull * 1.3);
         float dy = p.y - groundY;                   // height up the block face
 
         // Side wall: the plan swept up from the ground line to the top face.