If this were any other club, this would be a sign to go home, but this is Space, where the party keeps going well past sunrise. The silence leads to thoughts of going home and how late — or early — it is.
Still, the crowd gathered on the terrace waits for Siberian DJ/producer Nina Kraviz to go on, but an issue with the mixer is delaying the start of her set. For any other act, it would be a coup de grâce, but the five minutes sans music lead to profound energy. The crowd erupts into a chat. "Nina! Nina! Nina!"
Then, the stripped-down, minimal whispers of Melchior Productions' "Coming Up," a track that samples Pink's 2001 pop hit "Get the Party Started," leaks out of the speakers. We have a lift-off. It is an eight-hour closing set jammed with so many highs and lows that it feels like a Greek tragedy.
That November 19, 2023, set was just the latest example of Kraviz's ability to shine through the drama and hiccups of the dance music scene. If it's hitting some speed bumps when revving up the BPM from lithe house to psytrance, Kraviz can do it. If it's tottering off from belligerent techno to the time-honored bass and claps of ghetto house, she can do that, too.
It is why any underground music lover should hear her spin, whether USB or vinyl, at Ultra Music Festival on Friday, March 22, for the festival's coveted sundown set.
"Loads of groovy, energetic music with a Latin twist," she tells New Times about what the crowd can expect for her Ultra set. By "Latin twist," she may be alluding to her psytrance track "Hace Ejercicios," featuring an unknown Cuban man speaking in Spanish about the joys of exercise. Or it could be a remix of "Tarde," a barebones love ballad where Kraviz sings in Spanish against a scuttled bass that sounds more appropriate in a Robert Johnson song than electronic music.
Born and raised in Irkutsk, Siberia, the city closer to Japan than Moscow, undoubtedly influenced her and the frigid trappings of her Trip label and sublabel Galaxiid. The wind chill and its history as a place where political dissenters were sent into exile during the days of the Russian Empire paint the picture of a place where light does not penetrate. Nonetheless, it's home to Lake Baikal, the largest freshwater lake in the world, and where Kraviz found love in music. According to Mixmag, Kraviz discovered Led Zeppelin and Grace Jones in the day and electronic music via a Moscow radio show called Garage by Night.
She then wrote for a music fanzine and moved to Moscow to attend university. However, Moscow was undergoing an electronic music captivation that yanked Kraviz away from her career as a dentist for retired cosmonauts. Somewhere between Moscow and Irkutsk, she found Chicago in the late Paul Johnson's "Give Me Ecstasy" off the legendary Chicago house label Dance Mania.
Nina Kraviz's sound is influenced by Chicago house and the ghetto house subgenre.
Photo by Kate Bellm
After dissolving from her band Myspace Rocket, she moved to Sydney, Australia, after she was accepted into the Red Bull Music Academy. There, she met the artist Radio Slave, producing work released on his label Rekids. She eventually returned to Moscow as a resident DJ at Propaganda, one of the most celebrated techno clubs in the Russian capital.
During this time, she made the wisest purchase of her life: the Korg R3 synthesizer.
"After I left my band where I was singing and songwriting, I went straight to a music store to buy my first producer kit. I really wanted to make music on my own, so I got myself a mic and a sound card. Among all the synthesizers that were available at the store, Korg looked and sounded the prettiest. I got that, took it home, and made about 100 songs in the first couple of months of my solo music path. 'I'm Gonna Get You,' 'I'm Week,' and half of my album was made with that synth."
Her 2012 self-titled debut album was the catalyst for the Kraviz we know today. The 12-track record is filled with homages to ghetto house, including her much-lauded breakthrough track, "Ghetto Kraviz," and lucid monologues.
Though she's amassed two million Instagram followers, criticism from trolls, colleagues, and sometimes her fans can make her career choice a lonely experience. It seems for Kraviz, the only way to overcome is to change. One example is the increasing number of genre-switching tracks like the radio-friendly "Skyscrapers" and "This Time."
Even with her debut album 12 years behind her, the art of DJing remains a mystery to Kraviz. "I approach music in a very personal manner," she says. "It is way more than just a profession to me — in fact, it's an extension of myself. I select music intuitively, and it is risky sometimes, but it always guarantees that "first-time" feeling. There is not one set I felt to be the same."
Later this year, she plans to release more music from her partners on her record label Trip, as well as her own productions. "I'm in the process of recording my album and a couple of new projects, and, of course, collaborations. One is with Colombian uwuaracha specialist Aleroj."
Kraviz compares working on an album to baking a pie every weekend: the constant time drag can sour the reward. "All this time, I have been obtaining inspiration to record the next album, and I am not rushing with that. But I have written so much music ever since that it's time to record a new one."
Ultra Music Festival 2024. Friday, March 22, through Sunday, March 24, 2024, at Bayfront Park, 301 Biscayne Blvd., Miami; ultramusicfestival.com. Tickets cost $349.95 to $1,499.95 via ultramusicfestival.com/tickets.
Check out New Times' full listing of Miami Music Week 2024 events.
