VTSS

VTSS has carved out a fiercely inventive sonic identity through her wide-ranging DJ performances and her willingness to defy the rigid conventions that often govern techno. Earlier work drew from EBM and hardcore, while the 2022 EP Projections shifted toward IDM and breaks, demonstrating her ongoing refusal to conform within electronic music.

Martyna Maja, known as VTSS, was born and raised in Warsaw, Poland, where Aphex Twin and underage raves formed the backdrop of her introduction to the capital’s dance culture. Although she initially pursued a law degree, a 2012 trip to the underground electronic music festival Unsound in Kraków prompted a change in direction, leading her to study sound engineering instead. She gradually integrated herself into Warsaw’s club environment, progressing from warm-up sets to marathon sessions and eventually taking on door duties. That same determination shaped her DJ approach, as she consistently expanded techno’s parameters by folding in rave, electro, hardcore, and EBM elements.

After relocating to Berlin she became a fixture at prominent club events, including appearances at Berghain, and began releasing on labels such as Intrepid Skin, Haven, and Repitch. Her varied DJ sets soon led to numerous festival bookings while she maintained ties to the underground scene, collaborating with Randomer under the Body Sushi name and working with Varg. When the COVID-19 pandemic closed clubs in early 2020, VTSS concentrated on studio work and began reassessing the style she had developed. Disillusioned with Berlin’s strict techno conventions, she moved to East London in summer 2020, an environment that revitalized her output and aligned her with the city’s more permissive club culture. Several releases followed in 2021, among them the EP Borderline Tenderness, before she signed to Technicolour, the Ninja Tune subsidiary. Early the next year she issued the more experimental Projections, which blended IDM, breaks, and bass.