DYKTANDO - "ARCHIVE 14-19" CS

ALTERED STATES TAPES:

Following a 12” EP on Polish label, Syntetyk and contributing the searing “Healthy Correction” to an Altered States Tapes compilation earlier this year, Warsaw-based producer, Wiktor Milczarek, joins AST for his first EP. The connection to Dyktando was established via his friend (and fellow Polish artist) Chino, who’s 2017 tape, Old Practices, remains one of my favourite releases to grace the label.

Where Chino mines various genres in his productions, Dyktando’s focus remains more firmly fixed on a mutant hybrid of EBM and industrial-techno. I have followed the Poland electronic scene from afar for the last few years and it has produced some of the most interesting club and experimental music I’ve encountered in that time, Dyktando being one of the most recent revelations.

The entirety of this release, meticulously selected from work made from 2014 through ‘til last year, bangs with an assertive single-mindedness throughout. I find that EBM / industrial can often get stale quickly for me, especially over a full-length, but Milczarek keeps his feet firmly on either side of the “weird shit” and “immediately accessible” sides of the spectrum in perfect balance.