VTGNIKE | Steals (Other People)
On his second album for Nicolas Jaar’s label, the Russian producer continues to move away from footwork, building a gloomy world that is strangely welcoming.
Born three hours east of Moscow in the city of Vladimir, Avramov has ties to the label Gost Zvuk and is a resident at Moscow’s NII (Science and Art) club. When he began producing in earnest near the start of this decade, Avramov was in obvious thrall to the tumbling rhythms and playful sampling of Chicago footwork. But by 2014’s Dubna, his first album for Nicolas Jaar’s Other People, his double-time beats slowly but surely filled up with ambient atmospherics and lo-fi detritus, like a leaky boat taking on water. Steals – his second album for Other People and first since being released from prison on drug charges – is his foggiest, most abstracted music yet.