Remember arriving at Lopuchová street, looking around, wondering if you’re in the right place? Remember seeing our lovely red neon tubes in the hallway for the very first time? Did you go to the left, to the living rooms first? Or did you follow the volume of the sound right away? Do you remember the first track you heard from our soundsystem? The toilets still weren’t ready at that time probably. Do you remember any of that?

I have a pretty good memory when it comes to these things, but after a year, after so many nights (and days) spent in our club, these memories start to blur, they blend together and disappear slowly. But there are of course a few things which I won’t forget, ever. For example the Drag and Drop night, when DJ Maaco from Detroit in Effect pulled out the microphone and started hyping the crowd: “I am a street DJ, I get dirty!” It was the first time (and probably the last for a very long time) somebody did something like that in Ankali. The RARE night, when Phase Fatale was dropping some serious heavyweights in his set, and our coat hanger construction dropped off the wall as well, under the pressure of the hundreds of heavy winter coats. Such a mess, sorry about that.

Remember the one guy who started singing his morning prayers, facing the wall in our hallway, with first sun rays coming through the gate?

Then I remember the one time when Cormac asked me out of nowhere how my weekend was, while finishing the DICK party in a lively b2b with Muallem. Todd Terje’s edit of For Your Love by Chilly was playing and my weekend was suddenly much better. I don’t recall his name, but there was this man who came up to me at the bar, asked for a cigarette and just started talking. Turned out to be a really nice guy who came to Prague for a couple of months and since then, he hadn’t missed a single club night, until he went back home. If I ever see him again, I’ll definitely buy him a drink.

By the way, did you hear Mutuju’s opening set for Levon Vincent? Actually, I think that was probably the most intriguing set I’ve ever heard in Ankali so far. Edgy, fun, technical and spontaneous, pitch perfect.

I don’t know if it’s true, but I heard that there’s this another regular, who every now and then comes outside of the building in the early morning, to check if the sun is rising on time. Just wonderful.

Oh and I won’t forget the Job Jobse night. DJ Rafo opened with one of the most soulful (as he likes to call them) sets I’ve heard from him in a while, throwing his headphones in the air with every next track. Job closed his set with Smalltown Boy, on my request. We were so happy and I felt really awkward for the request, but I kind of knew he would want to play it.

After one year, memories blur, and I am not able to keep all of them. What really stays, and is stronger than ever, is this nice feeling. The feeling that something is right, something makes sense, and we get to be a part of it.