Bandcamp Pick of the Week 6/15/2024

It’s our Bandcamp Pick of the Week, featuring buttechno’s tense techno odyssey SOLSTICE PEAKS!

buttechno – SOLSTICE PEAKS

Genre: Techno

Favorite Tracks: “trancer,” “bleeps”

Pavel Milyakov’s work spans the stylistic gamut. Sometimes—like on last year’s Perila collab PXMPER—the Berlin-based producer skews ethereal. But his music is just as strong when driving, his clubbiest DJ tools typically appearing under the alias buttechno.

Hot on the heels of the misty breakbeat collection LOST SOUNDS, Milyakov is back with the EP SOLSTICE PEAKS. It’s his debut for Amsterdam label Kalahari Oyster Cult, and sits nicely within the context of the label’s laser-y body of records. Across four tracks, tense synth-stabs and rudimentary melodic sequences ride atop simplistic techno grooves. Lead single track “bleeps” embodies its title well, centered on percussive synth and a pounding, four-on-the-floor beat that evoke more direct cuts from the Livity Sound catalog. Opener “trancer” is dark and brooding, carried by a dreary vocal sample and flappy bass arpeggiations. “tech metal” is simultaneously feisty and subdued, FM-distorted low end churning over a clicky, compact beat. SOLSTICE PEAKS captures the funkiest side of Milyakov, an artist who seems in a state of perpetual and prolific evolution. Snag it on Bandcamp.