Vladimir Dubyshkin
jane doe’s secret
trip
Techno can be fun. Some might even argue that it’s supposed to be fun, but in a time when most tastemaker types are excitedly extolling the cloudy murk of dub techno and true-school classicists continue to bring a stone-faced seriousness to the genre, a vibrant album like Vladimir Dubyshkin’s jane doe’s secret provides a refreshing blast of color. Built atop galloping beats and gregariously elastic basslines, the LP is practically bursting with joy, its revelry enhanced by the Russian producer’s liberal use of cut-up—and, much of the time, non-English—vocals. With its sticky hooks and devil-may-care energy, the album does harken back to the freewheeling spirit of ’90s pop-techno and 2000s-era bloghouse, but the music itself doesn’t sound particularly retro. Dubyshkin seems far more interested in cheekily referencing the past than attempting to emulate it, and he’s imbued jane doe’s secret with the one thing that most modern techno full-lengths are clearly lacking: a personality.