- It's safe to say that Bjarki had a 2016 like few other techno artists. After hitting it big with last year's "I Wanna Go Bang" and making several appearances on трип's compilations, the Icelandic producer released a whopping three albums this year, with the full support of Nina Kraviz's red-hot label behind him. Those LPs defined Bjarki as an artist who goes far deeper than "I Wanna Go Bang." Fidgety IDM, boisterous breakbeat techno and old-school rave tracks meant all three records were varied and bursting with colour. He now caps it all off with "Fresh Jive," a track that's already received plenty of attention in DJ sets, and one that embodies what makes Bjarki such a refreshing face in techno.
At a blazing 140 BPM, "Fresh Jive" is far from polite, though it's more gleeful than aggressive. The foundation is made of slowed-down drum & bass, with a time-stretched breakbeat tumbling at its centre. Bjarki sends it over the edge with an ecstatic organ riff—half hardcore, half classic house. It ties together several different threads of rave music, but in the end, it sounds like an amalgam of everything Bjarki did on albums like Lefhanded Fuqs and Б.
On "Genat 8," Bjarki plays with staccato drum samples like a proto-jungle track, this time laid on top of a tough-as-nails, 135-BPM kick drum. It's not quite as exciting as "Fresh Jive," but it's no less trippy, frantic scribbling using the fundamentals of techno. If we've learned anything about Bjarki this year, it's that he rarely colours inside the lines.
TracklistA Fresh Jive
B Genat 8