Since 2013 Ashley Thomas has steadily been building up his artillery of forward-thinking hard-hitting club music under his moniker Otik. Releasing the ‘Stoned Ghost’ EP on Berlin’s Nous Disques imprint in 2019, Otik explored a more emotive dreamy side of UK Techno. In quick succession Otik’s followed up with a debut outing on Midland’s Intergraded imprint with a track titled ‘Actress’ and later the experimental ‘Dioxide’ EP via DEXT Recordings. In 2020, Otik self-released 3 EPs on Bandcamp and his momentum continued in the same year with EPs on Gobstopper Records, Shall Not Fade and a return to both Intergraded and Keysound Recordings.

His ’Trifecta’ EP marked a further progression in his career as he joined the roster of the Berlin based imprint Club Qu. November 2021 was Otik’s debut on Martyn’s label 3024 with his ‘Soulo’ EP, which received early support from Mary Ann Hobbs on Radio 6 and saw Otik explore various tempos and genres, infusing Jungle and UK Techno with other components of his sound.

He recently launched his own imprint Solar Body, with inaugural EP Psyops, a journey through Jungle, Footwork and Intelligent Breaks. Solar Body is set up exclusively to house the full spectrum of Otik’s productions, to connect the dots between deep ethereal atmospheres and high octane jungle, footwork, dark low-slung garage, moments of ambient techno and more.

Image by Rob Jones