Shift also used a technique (i'm not sure if it was intentional) that all of you guys are unfamiliar with, although its rather quite effective. Its when you use a render to add to the background, adds chaos, extra lighting, gives you an increased amount of smudge variation whilst keeping with the color scheme. I know quite a few people to do this. Im not completely sure if thats what he did here but that technique would lead to such a difference in outcomes.
Anyways as for the piece, i love the final outcome. The smudging is near perfect. The lighting is chaotic yet restrained, and the color scheme is beautiful. This piece reminds me a lot of elf065.