Solpara got his start in a tasteful corner of the Montréal techno circuit, performing in cult favorite projects Booma Collective and Pavla & Noura. After returning to his hometown of New York City in the early 2010s, he started rolling out low-key solo work. Earlier releases for Quiet Time Tapes and Brutaż presented brittle, scorched spins on dance and ambient, but his new album, Melancholy Sabotage—the artist’s first full-length for long-time friend Nicolaas Jaar’s label Other People—finds Solpara exploring his outer limits. Drawing inspiration from the unease and emptiness of the Covid lockdowns that shaped it, Melancholy Sabotage infuses Solpara’s established formula with prickly elements of post-punk and trip-hop. The end result emphasizes the artist’s ability to unite unexpected styles under the same burnt orange glow.