- Strichka, the annual 36-hour festival from Kiev club Closer, launched in 2013, the same year the venue opened. Since then, Closer has established a first-rate reputation among both artists and clubbers. Expansive in size yet with an intimate vibe, it's lauded for its affable atmosphere and the oomph of its crowds. Despite having found itself in a spot of legal trouble back in 2016, the club's position is now fully secure.
I always feel like I'm approaching a mechanics garage as I walk up the narrow side street that connects Closer with the nearby main road. This year, the layout of the festival was slightly different: an extra dance floor, titled Mezzanine, had been added, bringing the total number of stages to six. Doors ran from 9 PM on Saturday until the early hours on Monday.
Club resident Igor Glushko got the ball rolling on the 3rd Floor stage, playing a set of deep and acid techno featuring tracks like BLD's "Crawling (Stojche's Linear Dub)" and Kolombo & LouLou Players' "Wap Bam." Glushko, who's a cofounder of Kiev-based techno collective Rhythm Büro, was one of many robust local talents on display across the 36 hours.
The club's main dance floor, Closer, is often referred to as the Panorama Bar of the so-called "New East." Lil' Louis closed it out, taking it through to 9:30 AM with help from classics like Floorplan's "Never Grow Old." The space was heaving so hard that the Chicago veteran—true to form—removed his shirt after only an hour. It was a buoyant end to a night that wasn't without its disappointments—earlier on, Tama Sumo and Lakuti had been forced to pull out last-minute due to visa trouble.
Each year, Strichka marks the unofficial opening of Lesnoy Prichal, Closer's wooden open-air space. Sunny and multi-levelled, it recalls the sprawling playground-style areas once found in Berlin clubs like Bar 25 and KaterHolzig. For house DJs, it's hard to think of a better space to play in. The decks are on ground-level, adjacent to a raised platform stacked with dancers on the left. Wherever you look—up, left, straight ahead—you're met with smiling faces. Special Request played first here, from 10 AM through midday, bridging Saturday's club night and Sunday's all-day extravaganza. The UK DJ mixed bass-heavy house tracks with jungle, some of his own releases and fresh breakbeats like Muslimgauze's "Untitled 1985 (Victor Shan & Gerd Janson Morning Mix)." He sensed the vigour of the crowd and kept his set upbeat. Packed in like sardines, fresh faces danced side by side with those who'd been going for more than 12 hours. It was the party's first special moment.
Borys and Noizar, two Closer residents who played back-to-back for three hours after Special Request, had the enviable lunch-time slot on Sunday afternoon. The blend of fatigued and fresh dancers meant the energy on the floor was mixed. Starting spacey and complex, Borys and Noizar soon found that sunnier tunes received a better reaction, as melody and shuffling drums replaced the more electro-leaning sounds they began their set with. But a killer bassline—like the one on Moxx's "Time Is Running Out"—was never far away, as the duo ran through '90s tunes from Cari Lekebusch and Underground Resistance.
Maayan Nidam and Thomas Melchior delivered separate strands of minimal with live sets later on in the evening. Nidam, performing alongside vocalist Julia König, opened with a string of deep and loopy tracks before moving into more dynamic and percussive fare. Melchior, who played the afternoon's brightest material, ran through tracks new and old, including 2015's "Liquid Moves" with a new vocal. The festival's closing set, handled by the Berlin-based Yone-Ko, was its trippiest. A regular at Closer, he played straightforward and driving tech house and techno, with an occasional detour into progressive-tinged sounds, peppered with washes of pads and synths. The mixing was surgical—at times, you wouldn't realise two faders were up until one of the tracks went slightly out of sync. Before the party ended around 6 AM on Monday morning, Yone-Ko dropped Thomas Fehlmann's "Silverness" and the Juan Atkins remix of Mattia Trani's "313 Times." The few dozen people left, most of whom danced alone, swayed as the first rays of sunlight crept across Lesnoy Prichal.
Photo credit /
Sergio Kustov
Sasha Zmiievets - Thomas Melchior
The club's main dance floor, Closer, is often referred to as the Panorama Bar of the so-called "New East." Lil' Louis closed it out, taking it through to 9:30 AM with help from classics like Floorplan's "Never Grow Old." The space was heaving so hard that the Chicago veteran—true to form—removed his shirt after only an hour. It was a buoyant end to a night that wasn't without its disappointments—earlier on, Tama Sumo and Lakuti had been forced to pull out last-minute due to visa trouble. Each year, Strichka marks the unofficial opening of Lesnoy Prichal, Closer's wooden open-air space. Sunny and multi-levelled, it recalls the sprawling playground-style areas once found in Berlin clubs like Bar 25 and KaterHolzig. For house DJs, it's hard to think of a better space to play in. The decks are on ground-level, adjacent to a raised platform stacked with dancers on the left. Wherever you look—up, left, straight ahead—you're met with smiling faces. Special Request played first here, from 10 AM through midday, bridging Saturday's club night and Sunday's all-day extravaganza. The UK DJ mixed bass-heavy house tracks with jungle, some of his own releases and fresh breakbeats like Muslimgauze's "Untitled 1985 (Victor Shan & Gerd Janson Morning Mix)." He sensed the vigour of the crowd and kept his set upbeat. Packed in like sardines, fresh faces danced side by side with those who'd been going for more than 12 hours. It was the party's first special moment.
Borys and Noizar, two Closer residents who played back-to-back for three hours after Special Request, had the enviable lunch-time slot on Sunday afternoon. The blend of fatigued and fresh dancers meant the energy on the floor was mixed. Starting spacey and complex, Borys and Noizar soon found that sunnier tunes received a better reaction, as melody and shuffling drums replaced the more electro-leaning sounds they began their set with. But a killer bassline—like the one on Moxx's "Time Is Running Out"—was never far away, as the duo ran through '90s tunes from Cari Lekebusch and Underground Resistance. Maayan Nidam and Thomas Melchior delivered separate strands of minimal with live sets later on in the evening. Nidam, performing alongside vocalist Julia König, opened with a string of deep and loopy tracks before moving into more dynamic and percussive fare. Melchior, who played the afternoon's brightest material, ran through tracks new and old, including 2015's "Liquid Moves" with a new vocal. The festival's closing set, handled by the Berlin-based Yone-Ko, was its trippiest. A regular at Closer, he played straightforward and driving tech house and techno, with an occasional detour into progressive-tinged sounds, peppered with washes of pads and synths. The mixing was surgical—at times, you wouldn't realise two faders were up until one of the tracks went slightly out of sync. Before the party ended around 6 AM on Monday morning, Yone-Ko dropped Thomas Fehlmann's "Silverness" and the Juan Atkins remix of Mattia Trani's "313 Times." The few dozen people left, most of whom danced alone, swayed as the first rays of sunlight crept across Lesnoy Prichal. Photo credit / Sergio Kustov Sasha Zmiievets - Thomas Melchior