Another year, another Strichka. Nothing extra, you would say, but, you know, in the times, when even the biggest behemoths of the scene, like Sunwaves or Exit, are having troubles with their usual existence – it is something you need to recognize and support. Maybe for Ukrainian festivals, the problems are a usual thing; they’re dealing with those since the Covid era and the start of full-scale war with Russia, so even the drop of the three key artists just before the festival because of the logistical problems couldn’t shake the faith in it. Well, till the next time then, Transparent Sound…
But, who knows, maybe the drop of Transparent Sound, E.Lina, and DJ Plead, that had to leave the holes in the planned schedule, left more air for checking others. Like, usually at festivals, you can’t enjoy everything you want because of the constant running between the stages. A bit less running for me then.
Unlike the pre-2022 festivals, which usually had the epic opening at the Dvir stage, these daytime-only (because of curfew) festivals allow you to pick your own adventure from the start. I decided to choose the newest Closer resident, Shults.Sashaa and his kicking-out-the-door-with-the-leg opening set at Otel’ stage. Moderately small and dark place, filled with sweaty people just an hour after the start – sounds just right.
The next stop was Gallegos – the guy who chased his train to Kyiv with the taxi, and this thing alone requires a lot of respect. Just as his set – the constant playing with the loops, juggling between the styles, putting steamy vocals just after heavy acid drops, literally leaving you wondering, what you’ll hear next – that was a nice experience. Started with an almost empty dancefloor after the previous live performance, he filled it in 15 minutes just to never let them go.
The next stop was planned to be Shackleton, but since the schedule was changed at the last minute, the guys from Machineroom extended their live performance for a bit, while I was thinking, I’ll have a chance to check on Alex Savage – yeah, right. Remember those sweaty people from Shults.Sashaa’s set? Add twice as more, at least – I remember the most packed dancefloor in my life on Strichka, it was during Vladimir Ivkovic’s set on the most packed Strichka ever, well, this one had the same feel. I lasted there only a few minutes, just to check that Alex did another rockstar performance. Nothing unusual with that, Kyiv people know.
Finally, Shackleton took the stage on Dvir with his “festival” performance – that one that needs a lot of people to fully enjoy the moment. The mix of tribal and abstract motives during the whole live, highly energetic, especially for the performer in this case. A river of sounds that flew for his designed time. It was twice as nice to see him – at first on the line-up, knowing how long it takes to travel to Ukraine nowadays, and then, on the next day, in the crowd, while he truly enjoyed the moments with the public.
The next planned trip was to the 3rd Floor, usually reserved for techno, this time to a near-disco type of vibes. Serge Jazzmate took the stage when I came, and if somebody in Ukraine can transfer you into 2021 – that’s him. One more river of sounds, this time much more concentrated on the flow. Definitely slower than 125 BPM, but damn, if you give that sound a bit of time, you’ll have the top-notch experience. And the funny thing – I tried to film something – and the feel is missing on the video, you really need more than 59 seconds to enjoy that. Here’s a clip from Shackleton’s live instead.
Bufiman was caught for a bit after Serge Jazzmate too, at the same stage, but the final enjoyment of the day was Gapon. The guy who can bring the biggest memories from back then and put them in front of you on vinyl. For example, when do you heard Girl Unit for the last time? Because I remember for sure. And that was just the one example of his perfect and unusual selection that made the local bassheads make THAT face.
After a quiet, silent night (a luxury in Kyiv these days), we were prepared for the second day. It’s supposed to be easier – just strolling between Dvir and Lisnyy Prychal for 99% of the time. For most people, it started either at Igor Glushko’s Dvir performance or at Annyrock’s at Prychal. While Igor delivered his usual deep stuff on the edge of house and techno, Anya had the golden opportunity to share her house vision for the best amount of audience at the Prychal – you already have some people, but it’s not too overcrowded as it is in the evening.
Then it was time for live performances. Brother G at Dvir with his usual machine symphonies and the new name for most of the audience – local Thongvor at Prychal. And it turned out to be one of the names I’ll take with me back home after the festival. A solid and mature one.
A few more divisive hours – this time between one of the biggest stars of the event. Matthias at Dvir and Mari.te at Prychal. Since the weather started to get moody, people started to joke that Matthias had the better conditions for the rain (his location was under the roof), but eventually the crowd divided almost 50/50. Some of them wanted to hear Matthias’ synth marching, while another part stayed for the Mari.te’s house all-around set (also with a huge synthy vibe inside).
The closing was reserved for the local favorites, Roman K at Dvir, Bellis at Otel’, and Borys with Karine (she came back from abroad for this one). The synergy at Prychal was crazy; the public was literally ready to eat from their hands. 3+ hours of the most sophisticated Track IDs on the festival. The only bad thing – with this daytime-only type of parties, it seems, no matter how you expand the Prychal, it won’t fit everyone. But the curfew is coming at exact minutes, so there’s nothing you can do about that.
As usual, every artist from abroad left warm notes after coming back home (we highlighted some of those above) while locals started to prepare for the next big thing under the air raid alerts. See you at the end of summer, right?
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This article was written in Ukraine. Ukraine is in the middle of the war with Russia right now. Would be great if you could donate to the biggest Ukrainian volunteer fund here. Also, you can pick any music initiative, that is also trying to help from our list here. We’ll be stronger together.
