Even though hundreds of Aphex Twin wannabes came out in the late '90s, some new artists have created a sound of their own instead of playing some monotone ambient techno. Simply put, Brothomstates (Finnish native Lassi Nikko) is one of those imaginative newcomers. His electronica is mostly based on the late-'90s IDM and other electronica, but he tosses around different elements from styles that hardly relate with '90s electronica. Lassi Nikko began his career in music in the early '90s. He composed music for various groups in the so-called demoscene (a culture of creative computer geniuses), and gained worldwide reputation. He started working in music under the name Brothomstates at the end of '90s, doing various live gigs and gaining positive feedback from a wider audience. After he had done some remixes and single tracks for various compilations, the release of Kobn-Itch-Ey saw the daylight in 1998. The speciality of that album was (as for many other during its era) that it was released through the Internet only. Regardless of that, Brothomstates' debut is still very good, at least when comparing it to his contemporaries. The debut album Kobn-Itch-Ey, an energetic live performance at Koneisto, and many other demonstrations of his skills finally paid off, when a Finnish indie label concentrating on electronic music, Exogenic, released a 12" vinyl EP from Brothomstates. This EP introduced the new, musically grown-up Brothomstates and promised a lot for the following works. However, Lassi Nikko kept a low profile -- even though a few smaller releases were done through some tiny labels -- but finally he broke the silence in 2001 when it was announced that Brothomstates was signed to British Warp Records and an EP was to be released. Brothomstates' debut release on Warp, Qtio, was raved by music magazines and especially the following album, Claro, got good reviews around the world. At this point, Nikko's music was really polished and complete, in spite of its lack of production. ~ Antti J. Ravelin