Stream a track from the UK producer’s forthcoming record for Fabric’s Houndstooth label.
UK producer Vester Koza first emerged with a string of self-released 12″s in 2013, and quickly established himself with a unique approach to house and techno that recalls the stark productions of Levon Vincent and Kassem Mosse.
His next step is a move to Fabric’s Houndstooth label, a relationship that kicks off with an EP set for release on May 27. As Koza explains over email, the move was prompted because self-releasing had become too much work to handle alone.
“I just wanted to forget about the entire business of it all and concentrate on making music,” he explains. “Of all the offers I had [Houndstooth] were offering the most artistic control and the best long term deal.”
While Koza’s early tracks found favour with forward-thinking DJs, he denies that they were ever made for the dancefloor, saying it was “more about the records to me.” The OTR EP travels even further into the realms of abstraction, channeling dub, ambient and IDM into its four tracks.
“It’s just totally different influences and reference points, and a new objective with the music,” he explains. “Also I’m older now, more experienced, more reclusive, experiment a lot, trust my ideas more. I think my new stuff could be quite clubby though depending on where you’re coming from and your interpretation.”
The EP continues Koza’s interest in online security, privacy and encryption, made obvious by the AFX-like track titles that read like file extensions – something he says is down to the different devices, old, buggy operating systems and open-source software he uses.
The track ‘ROBOcow.exe’ for example draws parallels between modern genetically modified cows “selectively bred and treated like machines” and Microsoft Windows executable files.
“On Windows an executable (.exe) is an installer file, sometimes relating to a virus, which is what a lot of them are carrying as the cows are fed anti-biotics to make them grow faster and bigger, he explains. “This caused a rise in antibiotic resistant bacteria. Once they stop producing milk they meet their execution (.exe) and will be served on a bun, or if you’re from the north like me.. a barm (the name of track B2, which follows).”
Vester Koza’s OTR EP is released by Houndstooth on 12″ format on May 27. Pre-order it from the Houndstooth store.
