Buttechno & Triš - In Your Head

Album

25 Jul

2023 has been an exciting year for nostalgia, with internet subcultures pushing this retro sound commonly found in the 90s and 00s video game soundtracks. New YouTube channels and labels pop up seemingly daily, pushing this old-school sound. It is aesthetically close to the lo-fi house and hip-hop of years prior. Breakbeat-influenced lo-fi liquid styles have recently become the focus of these subcultures as clips from PlayStation-era game soundtracks have become all the rage. Buttechno and Triš have embarked on a journey to bring this nostalgia-soaked sound to a broader audience. The duo has teamed up to release In Your Head (2023) on the PSY X Records label. Bringing together earth-shattering stutters, pitched angelic vocals and pads that shimmer like tranquil streams, In Your Head is a faithful re-imagining of these dreamlike early video game soundtracks.

Kicking off the nostalgic love letter, 'Ent-22' lays the groundwork for what's to come. Glistening, glittery charm oozes from this record as the fairy-like vocals from Triš instantly capture's attention. Especially on 'Ent-22', hyper-stylised songs turn up the kawaii factor as the artwork and the music reflect each other. Conversely, the rapid drum chops rattle the track into modality on the record's second cut, 'DnB Jan'. The duo separates themselves from being another "made in the style of" and cementing themselves as "inspired by" through up-to-date production techniques and dense ghostly reverbs that saturate the album. The drum programming encroaches on IDM on 'Memory IV 140-160' as its bombastic grooves and unfamiliar sampled percussion pay homage to Selected Ambient Works and others with glitched-out sections.

A refreshing side of this album is its ability to highlight other forms of early electronic music. 'My Hai Funk' and the title track 'In Your Head' acts as a tribute to the trip-hop and early electronic pioneers—dusty drum work, floating pads, and vocals that ride the grooves. 'My Hai Funk' references early hip-hop's intersection with electronic music with the subtle record scratching on the vocals, while 'In Your Head' leans more toward Balearic influences. The delayed pitch-bent singing from Triš makes this offering much more surreal. This dreamlike motif continues into 'Silence 2', a dusty liquid drum and bass cut incorporating incredibly human-feeling strings. Clean and decisive glitch-laden drum programming contrasts the slightly uncanny human elements perfectly, man vs machine.

Kaleidoscopic arpeggios flood the frequencies on 'New DnB', only letting up in the breakdowns where drum workouts take on the heavy lifting. The speed these two features generate is exponential. Brutal breaks add a sense of danger to the final outing, 'XTC Kicked In', until hazy guitars return. It brings together several genre conventions culminating in a shoegaze-inspired folky jungle track. It feels as though Buttechno and Triš have captured that foggy memory perfectly. Strangely, they've captured the memory we all have brought into the present. They strip back the kitschiness that is always forgotten when looking back through rose-tinted glasses and replace it with modern magic, a proper love letter to the nostalgic past.

Tracklist: