From Warsaw to Hackney (London) via Berlin, and all this with an incredible projection growing as an artist in such difficult times as those we have had to live through with the Covid pandemic. Such has been the transition of Martyna Maja, better known in the scene as VTSS.
We have been hearing about the polish artist on an international scale for a little over two years now, but we are sure that this year, 2022, will be her definitive breakthrough… this young DJ and producer has things very clear, and she is directing her career towards the path that will take her to very, very high places.
She says in an interview that there was a moment that changed her life, and that was when, at the age of thirteen, she listened to Aphex Twin (thanks again, Richard D. James) and knew that electronic music was going to be her thing. At fourteen she was already playing in clubs and then she started playing with Ableton and put together a few records and got a couple of turntables and a shitty mixing desk where she started practicing with the help of some friends. Shortly after that she was already livening up a party or two and in the year 2012 she decided to quit his law studies at the university, signed up for sound engineering and her professional career as a DJ started in those days. But it didn’t stop there, and a year after those beginnings as a DJ, she played her first live set.
When she had worked her way through the underground circuit in the Polish capital, she loaded her gear into her car and drove to Berlin. And there she went on to play at Berghain. I think that says it all. At that time she played furious Techno sets, something that has evolved over time. But that’s how it was in her Berlin days, and as for her releases, they started to appear in 2018.
But she herself realizes that, although Berlin has helped her grow and make her way through the jungle of the electronica business, she feels somewhat trapped in the Techno bubble of the German capital, and then her body is asking for a change of pace. And once again, Martyna takes a new route and sets off for London. And she manages to get a foot in one of the best labels on the international scene, which is Ninja Tune (Technicolour is a part of the Coldcut empire), and on this label comes her new EP.
Projections consists of six tracks, and is, according to her, a “new chapter” that represents both a new direction and a return to her experimental roots… let’s remember that it was AFX who changed her life musically speaking. Nothing could be closer to reality, the six tracks that make up Projections is pure drill ‘n’ bass, a work that is inspired by the vintage sounds of Warp Records, that sounds at times like Aphex Twin, at others like Boards of Canada, or Autechre or Squarepusher. But all of it simply with the respect of a tribute and not a crude copy, her new work is full of pure inspiration and zero plagiarism.
In the same way that her latest sets shines in a different way, without leaving aside her usual spirit of constant revolution on the dancefloor and the forceful rhythms, her production has changed direction, leaving aside the stark and rough Techno to enter in a brave and determined way into experimental, much more original and innovative terrains.
Projections introduces a new phase of the VTSS catalogue, with more new music to come in 2022. Its agile and complex percussive architecture and dispersed tempos express, on the one hand, a desire to break away from familiar ideas and, on the other, a determined search for a personal stamp far removed from the most hackneyed trends. If we combine all this musical baggage with an overwhelming personality and a tremendous sense of humour that she exudes every time she is interviewed or makes public statements, it doesn’t take a fortune teller to see that the future of VTSS is really bright.
Available on Technicolour Records here
