When Berlin-born Sacha Robotti relocated to Los Angeles at the end of 2015, he didn’t plan on his uncontrollable insomnia becoming a career advantage. Yet before long it took on a life of its own as one of the most odd and effective weapons in his on-stage arsenal. Packing heat in greater supply over the span of his 25-year DJing career, the German-Italian producer rolled out praised hits like “Low Key Goddess” and “Melato Nina” to cement his place among other juggernauts of the industry. 

“I lived in Berlin for 16 years, with a whole career there.” Robotti says. “I needed a change. I need to be more creatively inspired and that’s why I went to L.A.”

The move paid off too. Shortly after he arrived, he met up with a few friends at Jinya Ramen and hatched the plan to throw a party that would bore out a place for him in the Los Angeles underground. On a whim, he tossed a sloth face for a logo on the flyer and the underground ate it up. He doubled down with memes on social media. Then fans started tagging him in everything that had to do with the animal because “apparently I look like sloth” he says.

Then, at Desert Hearts Festival he went to play a set that was widely anticipated by his fans to be colored with psychedelia in keeping with the culture at the event. “It was really techno and trippy and a friend brought sloth candies and every candy had a magic potion and they were handed out and everyone had a mind-melting experience,” says Robotti. Over the years, he’s built a track record of delivering exceptional moments on monster sound systems, while putting them to the test. “It’s all about the moment and the vibe.” 

With footing firm in a fuzzy new identity and his attitude grounded in the idea that he could blaze his own trail, he forged ahead to debut his appropriately titled album Welcome to Sloth Acid. It racked up more than 30,000 plays on Soundcloud within a few months and his tour schedule exploded as he was booked for a variety of local club events, in addition to world class events like Coachella, Dirtybird Campout, Electric Forest and Burning Man.

Earlier this month he dropped a Beatport chart smashing album called 2020 Vision EP on Sian’s Octopus Records in collaboration with Who Is Hush. With a continued flow of new music, Robotti has developed a seldom found flavor in house and techno, with a constantly evolving on-stage persona that always delivers. “If they need to feel something I will give it to them,” he says of his approach to reading the crowd. “If they need a beating I will give it to them, and if they want to fly I’ll give them that too.” 

Also in March, he made his return to San Diego’s most recognized festival trove of house and techno music, CRSSD, where he was booked alongside leviathans like Charlotte DeWitte, Carl Cox, Gesaffelstein, Rüfüs Du Sol and more in what turned out to be the most tremendous CRSSD event to date. In it, Sacha shined with an unforgettable dancefloor experience at iconic CRSSD stage, the Palms. He also took a zany selfie with Brodinksy and Soulwax who, like him, are from Belgium, so they got a rare opportunity (in Southern California) to speak French together too. Then, he played the Hornblower boat in an one of CRSSD’s infamous afterparties where his set was accompanied by the ever-so-slow moving sloth dancers. “It’s always great to play in San Diego,” Robotti laughs with a look of reflection.

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