Paajaasa

On his Spectral debut Paajaasa, Finnish tech-house prodigy Sami Koivikko—veteran of labels Shitkatapult and Festplatten—flirts with disco in his roiling rhythms and drops deep, foreboding electro basslines that dare you not to dance. The first track bounces playfully while something quite sinister hides underneath, slowly emerging from the darkness as the track unfurls. “Dore” offers straight-up techno disco bliss, spattering glitches on its rhythmic canvas, and “Pientare” weaves plenty of textures into its driving beat, from a vaguely industrial bass buzz to a cavernous chiming melody, with the clever fusion of old- and new-school that gives Koivikko his own conistently strong voice.