Sacha Robotti Brings Slothacid to His Open-to-Close Treehouse Set

Bass-fueled-house maestro Sacha Robotti is winding down his two-month Welcome to Slothacid fall tour this weekend with a headlining DJ set at Treehouse in Miami Beach. The show, which is scheduled for Saturday, December 14, will be the second-to-last stop on the 24-date North American run. The breakneck tour itinerary saw the German-born, Los Angeles-based producer touch down in cities including Chicago, Las Vegas, and Washington D.C., spinning open-to-close sets in all but two of the places he visited.

For Robotti, DJ’ing all night without another artist on support duties allows him to set the vibe from the moment doors open and work the crowd into a climax fueled by booty-bumping bass for hours on end.

“You know how much music comes out every week?” he laughs. “I get to play more music that I love and try out more tracks that I’ve made myself, test out demos and edits, and just be more experimental rather than banging out tracks for an hour and a half, which you kind of have to do when time is limited.”

Robotti's Slothacid brand was born after he moved to Los Angeles four years ago and began throwing raucous warehouse parties he dubbed “Comfort Zone” events. The Comfort Zone logo was the sloth that appears on the DJ/producer’s releases, and the fuzzy little creature soon began to take on different forms as fans began tagging him in sloth-related memes and donning sloth-themed attire to Robotti's events. The Berlin-born selector then took his sloth spirit to a California festival where his friends passed out tabs of acid during his set, birthing the Slothacid movement.

"Slothacid is a platform for me to express myself, explore whatever sounds I want in the electronic music realm, and release wearables designed in collaboration with artists like J Miles," Robotti explains. "Slothacid is designed as an output for musical work that I am involved in myself creatively, be it house with a happy note; tech house with emotional depth; cold, dark techno; or anything in between. I encourage my friends and fans to be themselves, let their weirdness shine, their freak flags fly, and their inner sloths come out for an all-around positive experience on the dance floor and beyond."
The Welcome to Slothacid Tour celebrates Robotti’s new Slothacid record label, which launched in August with the fittingly titled four-track EP Welcome to Slothacid. The label will put out original works by Robotti exclusively, and the inaugural release demonstrates the veteran producer’s shrewd prowess for creating tech-house tunes anchored by distorted vocals and extraterrestrial synths. On "Tail of a Siren," Robotti edited the sound of his vocals to evoke the feeling of being trapped in an electric force field.

“My label is a place for me to explore my own sounds,” he explains. “I’m making things that I like to play, and that fulfills me personally rather than trying to follow a certain sound that’s popular.”

The launch of his own label follows a career spent releasing his wobbly, unconventional noises on celebrated curatorial house and techno imprints, including Dirtybird, Octopus Records, and This Ain’t Bristol. He spent his childhood playing the cello and as a teenager immersed himself in the underground house and techno scene in his native Brussels. Later, he earned his master's degree while studying under legendary Kraftwerk member Karl Bartos. His far-flung musical background is reflected in his versatile productions and DJ sets, which Robotti hopes to bring across the pond once more in 2020.

“I emigrated from Berlin to the States, and I played in the States during the last four years, so the bigger goal now is to grow an international touring schedule again,” he says.

For now, Robotti looks forward to wrapping up his fall tour with a marathon set in a city such as Miami, where he feels he can fully express his creative and artistic vision. And with a birth name as eye-catching as Sacha Robotti, he plans to offer clubgoers a night brimming with unrepentant weirdness.

“I love to start slow, build it up, and go wherever the crowd and I want to go together rather than deliver a tea-time set,” he beams. “And people get more bang for their buck! The world can be a dark place, and I’m trying to light it up, even if it’s with music that’s at times dark itself. When I play open-to-close, I incorporate all kinds of music that I love. Love makes the world go 'round; all are welcome. ”

Sacha Robotti. 11 p.m. Saturday, December 14, at Treehouse, 323 23rd St., Miami Beach; 786-318-1908; treehousemiami.com. Admission is free before midnight and $15 after via eventbrite.com.