- Otik's precise club music floats on a lush, celestial plane.
- Otik flies a little under the radar sometimes, but each of his releases since 2020's Wetlands has been better than the last. Psyops, the first EP on his new label Solar Body, might be the best yet. It's magnetic yet mysterious, cerebral and cosmic and deeply emotive, building on the euphoric club music sound he's already established. Psyops is easily his most precise record, remodeling jungle rhythms in a deeply psychedelic way, skirting the perimeters of not only that genre but lush trance and leftfield techno.
The title track starts off with syncopated kicks and breaky percussion, while subdued pads provide the backdrop for a haunting flute melody and soulful piano-esque notes that bring to mind early Djrum. "Skylines" takes us up a level, though it's still somewhere on Earth's horizon with a primal vocal sample, twinkling melodies and fast, danceable rhythm.
The flipside goes somewhere off-planet: the melody of "Presence Ultra" is even more starry than the arpeggios of "Skylines," though raw Amen breaks and a bit of hand drumming add some nice analog-sounding counterpoints. "Eden Portal" is one to get lost in, with its staccato stabs and dense, almost mathematical percussion. By the end of the EP we're floating with feet no longer on the ground. Psyops is club music that rides a celestial line, and is a strong show of Otik's skill and heart—an impressive inaugural release for what could be a boundary-breaking label.
Tracklist01. Psyops
02. Skylines
03. Presence Ultra
04. Eden Portal