VC-118A

Helsinki-based Dutchman Samuel van Dijk is a multifaceted talent, producing steely electro-techno as VC-118A, aquatic dub techno as Mohlao, and isolationist ambient as Multicast Dynamics. Born in Friesland and eventually moving to Amsterdam, he became friends with Boris Bunnik (Conforce) and Niels Luinenburg (Delta Funktionen); they would ultimately all end up together on the same label, Delsin. His early musical inspirations were Deepchord, Drexciya, Vladislav Delay, Murcof, and Rhythm & Sound; initially working with software, he later switched to a largely hardware-based setup. Although usually recognized as van Dijk's "main" project, VC-118A (named for the Douglas Liftmaster, which served as President John F. Kennedy's Air Force One) was in fact his second alias -- Mohlao was launched three years earlier, in 2009. The first VC-118A release came in 2012 with the single "Information System" on Trust, a spacy, trippy outing which retained some of the dubby feel of the Mohlao material but had a marked electro twist, with retro drum machines and acidic splashes. That year he also released his debut album, International Airlines, on Lunar Disko. Propulsive yet subdued, it had a spooky, shadowy atmosphere. The following year van Dijk moved to Tampere in Finland. The frozen landscape and the absence of any sort of scene affected his music, leading to the creation of the isolationist ambient project Multicast Dynamics. Some of that project's icy atmosphere bled over into the second VC-118A album, Shift Register. Released in 2016 on Tabernacle, it blended electro with glitch and IDM elements and was critically acclaimed for its musicality and depth of emotion. Following a couple more Multicast Dynamics releases and the eventual appearance of Mohlao's long-awaited debut album, Landforms, in 2017, van Dijk moved south to Helsinki and returned to VC-118A for the project's third album, Inside. Issued by Delsin in 2019, it had the most straight-up electro feel of any of his albums to date. ~ John D. Buchanan