Nicolas Jaar's Other People label picks up new Russian name, Vtgnike (pronounced Vintage Nike dontyaknow) for a diverse debut vinyl album. 'Dubna' collects nine tracks shape-shifting between OPN-like chopped & screwed experiment 'Stimulate' through to Shackleton-esque polyrhythms and aqueous sound design in 'Panarama Bar Shitt', but the majority is given to a ghostly, detached strain of rave and electronica filtered through a mazy prism of Footwork rhythms and smudged, hypnagogia-inducing FX. It's not a sound you might typically associate with Nicolas Jaar and his label, and should come as little surprise that Vtgnike has previously released under other names on experimental boutiques such as Left Blank and AntonZap's Ethereal Sound. At its best, the spectral footwork of 'Jimmy Dub' and the heady swirl of 'Rewind Ioseliani' afford unique, strangely disconnected perspectives on Western dance music, steeped in a sort of melancholic nostalgia that should ring home with fans of everyone from Throwing Snow to D'eon or even Hype Williams.
