- Tikita is a new vinyl-only, Berlin-based label run by two North African artists with a focus on "hypnotic body and mind music." The label's first move is a good one: they've tracked down Ko-Ta—a Japanese producer whose Stratosphere Records, active from the late '90s to the early '00s, might already be familiar to some techno heads—to release a new, remastered version of his 2001 record Festimask.
This Tikita version actually draws from a few sources. "Comptine" and "Scene 2" were on the original Festimask four-tracker; "Tom Tom (Edit)" initially appeared on Ko-Ta's 2000 EP Private Tools; and "Unreleased 3" was produced around the same time but never came out. (Those first three, remastered, sound a little louder and fuller in the low-end than before.) It's all about tribal techno here, with loop-heavy tracks that are certainly fine on their own but make for excellent DJ tools. "Comptine" is the first and the best, a perfectly knotted-up bunch of syncopated percussion and nothing else. For some, it'll stand out as the rhythmic foundation for one section of Cio D'Or and Donato Dozzy's wonderful "J" mix from 2011—and it's not hard to imagine Ko-Ta being an influence on some of the "voodoo" sounds that Dozzy, especially, has more recently been conjuring.
While similarly focused on drums, the other three tracks come underpinned with straight 4/4 beats. "Scene 2"'s sparse but resonant drums and vocal incantations are a suitable soundtrack for stomping around some gigantic bonfire in the middle of a forest, while "Tom Tom (Edit)"'s subtly shifting percussion suggests mellower movements. "Unreleased 3" surges steadily to the end with bristling treble and what sounds like hushed chants buried in the mix.
TracklistA1 Comptine
A2 Scene 2
B1 Tom Tom (Edit)
B2 Unreleased 3