Digging through January with Servicebot
This month we pass the digging shovel to David Štrobach aka Servicebot, the programmer of Vitamin and the guy who occasionally frowns and smiles when guarding the doors to our club. For us, David is family, and he’s bringing his Vitamin family over in a few weeks, which makes it the perfect occasion to let him play in the dirt.
Kinzua’s debut LP is coming out on January 27th on Offen Music and right now, you can check out three tracks out of eighteen. All three cuts sound great, proper found footage style explorations, a relentless stream of thought. Weird, bubbly, at points slappin’, but consistently evocative. Can’t wait to listen to the remainder of the record.
What I found really interesting, though, is that one half of Kinzua is Marvin Uhde. Marvin is also known as Qnete, and some six or seven years ago, I invited him and his fellow 777 troops Ron Wilson (who couldn’t make it in the end) and one of my long-time faves Innsyter (aka Seixlack) to play at the opening night of this club that I used to work at called Herna.
It was a really nice night and I remember fooling around with Marvin, who played a great set, and him saying something along the lines of his ears being exceptionally sensitive to shitty beatmatching, which led him to spend many a night perfecting the craft alone at home.
And I gotta say that although we had to use toilet paper rolls for isolating the turntables that night because we had no squash balls, every transition was just richtig. In the following years, I recalled his face often while butchering a mix.
I’m certain that local Y.O.G.A. superstars Cosmodan, Olga Zhaldak & Zen will bring no less than an ultrawide selection of mutant weapons of all shapes and sizes. And since they’re going to be joined in their efforts by Wildt kick drum commanders Nastik & Unjack, one thing I def wouldn’t be scared of this coming Friday the 13th at Ankali is sleep.
I’m not big on traditions as things that repeat regularly at a certain time of the year remind me of my future demise, but this annual exchange is shaping up to be something that I’m gonna look forward to for many years to come hopefully.
We tried to expand the concept from last year, so this time we’re not doing one, not two, but three rooms of alien weirdo sounds at Ankali. There’s no escape!
phil in a maze is one of our beloved Vitamin residents and particularly two sets of his from the recent past (one from our sweaty fuck marathon Bent and then the recent one at NYE with Eva Porating) are among my personal faves so far from this season at Vitamin. He’s a super skilled DJ technically and his selection is like a series of perfectly executed surgical cuts. What I find really funny is that often I end up asking ‘Where’s Phil, has he left already?’ to find myself sitting next to him on a couch some two hours later. ‘I’ve been here all along, David’ he usually says, or something of that sort.
Psj needs no introduction to anyone I suppose. When we were coming up with first plans for this collab, everybody instantly agreed that he’s the single person that can’t be missing on either night. Psj I have a really soft spot for, he’s one of my soulmates, we’ve been through a lot and I can’t wait to see his jolly bearded face again, dropping traxxx (with triple x) that crush your soul and move your body regardless of their bpm.
Tasya’s been gradually becoming a regular at Vitamin as well, I think she’s a great fit, both musically and personality wise, and I’m always happy to have her over.
Planeta will provide sonic adventures by Eva Porating, Skalm & one of Vitamin’s core members Westdale (fka Daniel Styles) and I think Planeta’s intimate dance floor couldn’t be in better hands for the night.
Eva’s a legend & family, I couldn’t count how many sets of hers I’ve heard but I’ll never have enough. I love how she can tell you you’re behaving like a bit of a fucker while remaining super positive. It’s been super exciting watching her selection develop over the many years I’ve known her, and especially her recent ventures into live/ambient.
Skalm’s been becoming our go to slomo/freaky selector at Vitamin and I was hoping to catch her set at Ankali as well and I’m a big fan of her Interface series for Infame.
Our very own Canadan is on closing duties in Planeta, and I expect him to satisfy the appetites of all lovers of breaks and such. Watching him develop his technique and selection with more and more detours into fast, percussion-driven hard hitters recently has been super enjoyable to say the least. I like his energy and that he somehow manages to transfer it onto my bored ass a lot of the time. Nothing but love for Daniel.
Room 3—the living room, the listening room, the check-if-people-aren’t-smoking-here room as I like to call it during my occasional door shifts at Ankali—will be occupied by me and Andriy Kostyukov. I’ll be playing everything that isn’t dance music, I intend to focus on field recordings, ambient, some of the more exotic post punk anthems, some shoegaze, and loads of obscurity. I think this older mix I did under my Kadaver moniker could give you an idea.
And I believe that Andriy is going to take you on a beautiful cosmic trip where faces melt and walls evaporate.
Since I’m a part of a collective running a club, I rarely go to parties anymore unless I work at them—DJ, doors, and sometimes both hahaha (4 hours doors and 5 hours closing at Ankali’s reopening last year was one of my favorite doubleshifts). But if I was in a different position, I’d probably consider heading to Ankali on the 27th of January.
fleika’s an assurance of quality if you’re looking for heady techno. I remember that when I started going to Ankali regularly some 5 years ago, I’d sometimes come at a really weird time like 9 AM or something, after a shift doing lights or playing somewhere else. And I’d always see him in the booth, relentlessly spinning, paying little attention to his surroundings. I remember thinking sometimes ‘man, I bet if I came here any day of the week, any time, he’d probably still be in the booth’. I never found out if it was true, but I like to think it could have been.
AXT we’ve had twice so far this season at Vitamin and I’m already looking forward to her next appearance.
I grew up on the sort of tunnel vision, no-exit techno Freddy K’s been playing for I dunno how many (but many) years and it still has a place in my heart.
As luck would have it, I had the chance to play after both Surrealita and Tobleronchik in the past couple of months and they both handed the room to me in a very festive spirit. Nothing more to add.
Check the full programme of January here.
Artwork for January 2023 was made in collaboration with Alicia Carerra.
