Kyiv Dispatch: ctrl+opt Delivers a Marathon Set at АБО Records

Here’s what you need to understand: Ukraine is a place where things happen despite the conditions of reality. There is an unspoken and often beleaguered conspiracy on a grassroots level to make sure that life, and the things that make it possible and enjoyable, continue. This explains how despite the coldest winter in nearly a decade and the fifth year of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine looming overhead, there is a small electronic show in Kyiv where the Miami DJ Angelo Marcel (performing as ctrl+opt) has already begun his set.

The venue, AБО Records, is underground in the best way. A 30 minutes walk from the nearest metro through graffitied and postered streets, the store is tucked to the side of a horseshoe-shaped courtyard it shares with the club BRUKХT. From the snowy courtyard, you see a single door and broad window. Looking in, there is an annex and a cozy listening room with record stacks and turn tables. Inside, rough hewn concrete heavy with fragrant smoke or fog. Good security. Jacket check. The warmer lighting in the annex turns into something darker and evocative, and the seemingly small space opens up unexpectedly. Brick walls. Wood beamed-roof. Post-industrial stylings. A small side passage with tight beams of neon, arterial red reflecting off mirror fragments fixed to the wall. Gold-dust columns alternate lighting the modest dance floor. The bar is well-lit against the back wall in the same blood-red/gold sodium-like lighting. The bathrooms have the right amount of polyglot graffiti. Early in this winter evening, it is dark out, and a handful of people gather at the bar.

ctrl+opt/Marcel is at work under the red glow of a single esoteric industrial light— something strangely reminiscent of a heat lamp. His deck faces the dance floor, and behind him crates with record stacks stand at the ready. The entire venue is two-tiered, revolving around the central, closed-in DJ booth. Grabbing a drink from the bar, you can turn and watch over the shoulder of any visiting artist with a strange intimacy. From where I’m standing I watch as ctrl+opt alternates between working his setup and digging through the record stacks. So early on in the night the beat is easy, featuring ethereal vocals and a complex, grooving bass and drum tracks (see: his track Made A Planet Again). I see what seems to be a sound tech light incense and stick it into crevices in the brick walls before attending tirelessly to his duties the rest of the night. The crew is locked in.

Marcel is doing a marathon session all night. I see a few dozen people in the place now. Forms moving on the dance floor. An occasional face lit by the gold lights. A shift in the second hour: firmer, punchy bass lines and a slight uptick in BPM. The best qualities of ctrl+opt’s discography are on display. His breadth of work, a certain eclectic, experimental quality. During these relatively harsher, more industrial stretches, Marcel works in smooth bloops and pops—a sound like bubbles popping in your ear. It sounds crazy on paper, but the contrast works. Throughout the entire night, there is a playfulness and unexpectedness in the sounds that are incorporated into the set. This will quickly become my favorite quality of Marcel’s set. In every new section, there is always a unique sample or a complex layering of sounds, beats, and samples. I watch him light a loose, euro-style dart with one hand as he thumbs through the stacks with the other. He flips records on and off the turn tables. The vinyl sleeves for the records he has currently spinning on the tables sit slanted at a 45 up out of the crates. I watch Marcel mix, sample, flip records, switch between headphone sets. He works the set relentlessly.

In the third and fourth hour, I float between different areas before settling into the dance floor. The venue isn’t uncomfortably packed, but there is a large, very attentive crowd. The heat of the crowd keeps the winter at bay, and I am actually warm for the first time in weeks. The beats are heavy now, the volume up. The audio setup off the dance floor is perfect, and the body- feel coming from the subs is perfect. Marcel continues to surprise. Varied screwed vocal samples. Inexplicable, almost spoken-word, sections: a woman’s extended monologue about police brutality and OJ Simpson in a white Bronco alongside a continuous heavy beat. Hazey, digitized vocals and driving beats (ex: his track Te Chumba). A frenzied saxophone solo sample erupts between breaks reminiscent of the best of 90s Jungle. A pack of cigs left on a CDJ. It all works. It’s a dizzying, almost trance-like experience. This is the best of what a live DJ set has to offer. Marcel seems like he is in the zone—and the crowd, me included, is right there with him. The space is tighter now and the crowd is energetic. People are moving, dancing to the music. The time passes effortlessly. At least one track, Power, from his latest EP makes a welcome appearance.

The last hour. My back is tight, my legs sore. A part of my brain wants to leave or even just take a break, but I’m fixed to the front of the booth. Near the end, more IDM-style ambient samples appear, something like an aluminum trash lid being hit with a soft mallet. “This dream is real,” one sample drones, “it’s not a dream,” but like the best of dreams every set has to end. Suddenly, the soft gold lights begin to come on. Marcel fades the music out. It’s over. There is heavy applause from the crowd. I thank him briefly for the set and make my exit.

АБО is a rare gem and I love it. There is an obvious care and attention to detail in the space here without it becoming over polished. Everyone I talked to was genuinely welcoming. Two of the crew ask me if I had a good time on my way out the door, and ask me if I will come back next time. I tell them I will definitely be back—and it’s the truth. I get the feeling that this is one of those nights I will think about for a very long time. Performances like ctrl+opt’s and venues like АБО are rare in and of themselves, and you have to appreciate them when they collide.

I recommend not only listening to the discography of ctrl+opt (Socials / Linktree) but supporting АБО Records (DISCOGS) as well, especially if you are interested in the types of house, break, and dance music they have to offer. If you are reading this and somehow in Kyiv, visiting AБО is a must even if they don’t have anything scheduled. Going to the listening room the day before the show, I was greeted kindly and, being admittedly naive about vinyl, I was shown the ropes of how to work a record table. I was invited, and felt genuinely welcome, to sit, listen, and enjoy the space. Listen to ctrl+opt and catch his sets if you have the good luck to. Support AБО however you can. These are my demands.