Buttechno

Since 2014, Pavel Milyakov – aka Buttechno – has been at the very heart of Moscow’s burgeoning underground scene.

The multidisciplinary artist and DJ is the founder of Johns Kingdom, a collective of artists from the suburbs of Russia’s sprawling capital that also includes Kedr Levinskiy. Based out of a new generation of Moscow clubs and spaces like NII and Rabitza, this scene drew its charge from an inclusive, DIY ethos and pan-genre approach. Perhaps unsurprisingly, It didn’t take too long for the community to break cover – in 2015, Milyakov soundtracked Gosha Rubchinskiy’s AW15 show, drumming up international attention from the style and music press.

But for Milyakov, music has always been the guiding force. As a producer, Milyakov is celebrated for a gnarled, overdriven take on club music, releasing music on labels like The Trilogy Tapes and Cititrax. It was the latter which provided the home for his brilliant debut LP Cherskogo Drive, one of our Top 100 Albums of 2018. As a DJ, his remit is a little more freeform, as this mix excellently attests. Over Crack Mix 251’s relatively compact running time, Milyakov strays from noise, musique concrete, jungle and the raw techno for which he’s best known. We couldn’t have asked for a better curtain raiser for 2019.