Sami Koivikko

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 A-side 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.