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Archive Feb 12, 2016
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There’s a banger ahead of us promising to put San Diego’s Waterfront Park on fleek, just as it has for the past few years, with an experience that sets the tone for this year’s music happenings in SoCal: CRSSD Festival 2016. With each year’s lineup getting bigger than the previous—this iteration’s talent includes a range of acts like our past cover boy Chet Faker and music’s most wanted Odeza, to Chicago’s own OG legend Green Velvet and the wizardly Damian Lazarus—the easy breezy addition of booking a hotel room and heading to the ocean front is gaining the festival popularity as well, cause, simplicity.
Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s focus on the Italian-German, Belgium bred 3rd culture polygot with a Russian first name, Sacha Robotti, and the exclusive tracks he’s curated to pump up our anticipation for the fest. Starting with the cello at age 7, Robotti went on to discover the rumblings of the underground house and techno scene of his native Brussels in his teen years, inspiring him to retire in the bow for turntables. Influenced by the greats of this era like Green Velvet, Aphex Twin, Jeff Mills, DJ Funk, Thomas Bangalter and Dave Clarke, he was soon honing and mastering his own DJ skills, with his sound evolving through the years yet still attaining his signature block: dirty, bass-heavy, rich, sonic.
Releases include “The Major” feat. DJ Rush (Dirtybird) played by DJs like Seth Troxler and Miss Kittin (hear it below!), his collab with Claude VonStroke that included a VIP version of “Lay It Down-Re-Smoked”, the final track of his latest album “Urban Animal”, Sacha’s addition to the birthday compilation, “Thump Bumper” with Kevin Knapp, got voted by Mixmag as one of the 10 tracks that defined Movement Festival Detroit, being played by every DJ with a love for bass and dirt, and enjoying big support from Green Velvet, one of Sacha’s teenage heroes. Awww…
Lovage – Sex (I’m A)
Wow, Mike Patton and Jennifer Charles on a beat by Dan The Automator. Also, it doesn’t get any better in regards to the album title and artwork!
Aphex Twin – Windowlicker
Classic and creative genius, both the song and the video by Chris Cunningham & Richard D.James.
IAM feat. La Phonky Family – Bad Boys de Marseille
IAM and Fonky Family are among the finest French Hip Hop artists of the 90s especially, NTM and a few others fit that description too. I used to listen to this stuff a lot in my native Brussels, Belgium.
DJ Funk – Work It
Hell yes, I love DJ Funk! This style of Chicago bootyhouse music was very popular in the clubs in Belgium when I was 15.
Sacha Robotti – The Major
My first track on Dirtybird! I remember being SO HAPPY when Claude Vonstroke signed it. The track is a bassy 808-909 techfunk affair with a DJ Rush vocal sample that I snatched from a vinyl I bought around 2001.
Bjarki – I Wanna Go Bang
This Techno belter has to be played on a massive soundsystem, I remember playing it on the main floor of Sisyphos Berlin recently. Mayhem! Sometimes I feel like I wanna go Bang.
*Find out about his wherabouts right here, he’s worth it.
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