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Delhi City Guide with BLOT!

BLOT! is a live electronic music project based out of Delhi, India. Straddling music and art, party and performance, Gaurav Malaker is the producer and DJ at the helm of the project.

Since its start in 2007 with Thiruda (Avinash), BLOT! has slowly edged away from more minimal sounds into mastery of a warmer and more emotive sound that straddles techno and deeper side of modern house. The producer has delivered an inspiring run of music releases in his career spanning a decade, as well as immersive audiovisual sets and innumerable art installations both in India and abroad

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Berlin City Guide with Cesar Merveille

Dance music was always about having fun. It’s an ethos that has not escaped Cesar Merveille, the Paris-born enchanter whose ascent through the ranks of house and techno has been powered by an irrepressible joie de vivre, matched only by a desire to be challenged by everything he does.

Encouraged by creative freedom during his formative years, Cesar learnt to listen to his instincts and keep a healthy dose of soul in everything he turned his hand to.

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Brighton City Guide with Magnus Asberg

After earlier years playing hip-hop, electro and rock, Magnus Asberg first caught the fever for house music in 1985. Since then he’s honed his craft amongst the best there is, pushing the sound everywhere and anywhere he’s been.

Unsurprisingly, a DJ career that has lasted more than 30 years has seen Magnus play at (probably) hundreds of clubs and parties all across Europe and the U.S. From world-renown super-clubs like Fabric through mountain-side bars to hard-to-find warehouses in a city near you, this man has done ‘em all.

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Miami City Guide with Rony Seikaly

Despite early sporting success as an NBA basketball star, music has always been Rony Seikaly’s passion. The Lebanese/American DJ and producer has played every major club worldwide and has shared the stage with luminaries such as Marco Carola, Damian Lazarus, Guy Gerber to name a few.

Since 2010, he has released on labels including Suara, Saved, Yoshitoshi Recordings and many more. Last year he began his own Stride Records imprint, and continues to run his radio show ‘Sugar Free Radio’, now in its sixth year.

He recently released a documentary on his life with CloseUp360, which really showed the amazing journey he’s had, from war-torn Beirut to Global NBA Star, DJ, Producer and Real Estate Mogul. He’s worked incredibly hard and that has paid off.

A Miami resident and a Miami lover, Seikaly shares his favorite spots in the 305. Watch Rony Seikaly’s documentary with CloseUp360 here and read on for his Miami picks below!

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Newcastle City Guide with Elliot Adamson

Charismatic Northern England prodigy Elliot Adamson has been making waves recently with his brilliant releases and out-the-box way of presenting his artistry.

The Newcastle-based 23-year-old has fast become the tastemakers’ tastemaker, securing accolades like a Hottest Record, a Kanye-themed Mini Mix, Six Music support and more.

Aptly for the series finale, PiHKAL is the most exploratory and experimental of his recent trilogy releases, richly informed by soul, disco, ambient, jazz, ghetto tech, UKG and beyond. Each track is a trip inside Elliot’s brain – you can feel the thought and creativity involved, from old school house chords in ‘Frantic Felines’ to the vocal-salted ‘This Must Be Deep’. ‘Get Out’ pulses with warmth and soul, whereas ‘We The People’ is a more direct, bass-heavy percussion-led number.

The North East is an incredible and vibrant part of the UK with a passionate music scene and some amazing local haunts, which is why we asked Elliot to give us a personal guide to his hometown of Newcastle.

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Oslo City Guide with Ivaylo

After a long pause, Full Pupp are finally back and with new Oslo talent supreme. Jaeger Club’s resident Ivaylo returns here to Prins Thomas’ always on-point Full Pupp label for a release defined by its imaginative take on contemporary house and techno.

Featuring three peak-time dance floor tracks, Syklon is a release that speaks to discerning dance floor connoisseurs in emphatic fashion. Raised in Bulgaria but now firmly based in Oslo, the Jaeger resident has really been finding his feet of late, playing alongside some of the scene’s best-known names and consistently putting out expert sounds courtesy of his Bogota label.

2019, however, is the year that the producer’s sounds are sure to reach a new audience still. Indeed, his first solo release of the year comes at us here courtesy of fellow Oslo dweller Prins Thomas’s always on-point Full Pupp imprint. Featuring three classy tracks that explore the producer’s many influences, this one is every bit as exciting as we’d anticipated. It’s the dubby, weighty sounds of ‘Syklon’ that get the release underway. Notable for its classy drums and unlikely turn of pace around the halfway point, it’s an innovative track that speaks volumes of Ivaylo’s knack for taking chances—and being greatly rewarded for doing so. Kicking off on a fairly innocuous tip, it morphs into a full-bodied techno workout thanks to some expert synths and an old-school vocal. ‘Aerodynamisk’ is another impressive battle weapon, with this one drenched in positive, sun-glistened sounds and emotive overtones. Banging but also deep in parts, it walks the tightrope between two very different strands with an impressive distinction. Like ‘Syklon’ before it, it refuses to stand still and opt

As Ivaylo readies for the release to come public on May 31st, we asked him to kindly share his insight on his home city of Oslo.

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Bologna City Guide with FLML

FLML are Francesco Leoci and Marco Leoci, a house music duo based in Bologna, Italy who are also the founders of the label ALLEY VERSION.

We asked them to take us on a little tour of their home city of Bologna, sharing 5 of their favorite spots in the Northern Italian city.

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Istanbul City Guide with Gadi Mitrani

Pablo Bolivar’s Spanish imprint Seven Villas welcomes Gadi Mitrani for a fantastic compilation titled Gadi Mitrani Plays Seven Villas that shows off the label’s deep and organic take on electronic music. It features 19 tracks, all previously released on the label, mixed masterfully together in 70 minutes, in a seamless and seductive fashion.

Turkey’s Gadi Mitrani has released on the likes of Galaktika Records, Tale&Tone and Kompakt—as well as this label—since 2015. His signature sound is deep and patient, progressive and melodic, and so he is a perfect artist to represent this label’s best musical offerings. It draws on tracks of his own on the label, as well as from the boss, plus the likes of Tigerskin, Maxi Degreasi, Lego Boy and Modd, and traverses spine-tingling deep house, masterfully melodic grooves and beautiful ambient laced rhythms.

We asked Gadi Mitrani to share five of his favorite spots in Istanbul

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Manchester City Guide with Imaginary Part

Italian producer Imaginary Part, known to friends and family as Davide Cuoghi, is now based in Manchester, England, and supplies us with his guide to the city.

Museek Records is an Italian label with a simple but honest philosophy: if the music is good and they dig it, they’ll release it. To date, it’s meant the label has flirted with a range of different sounds, with the general consensus being that their way of working has emitted some staggeringly impressive results to date. A similar thread courses throughout the diverse sounds of their latest. This time about, it comes at us from Davide Cuoghi aka Imaginary Part, a relatively elusive producer with but a few releases to his name so far. Machine Learning is his debut LP – and it truly is a joy to behold. Davide takes inspiration from a mathematical notion via his alias, as in mathematics complex numbers are made from a real part and an imaginary part. Without the imaginary part they are purely real. Imaginary Part is an escape from reality, taking inspiration from ambient, downtempo and abstract soundtracks.

Imaginary Part is set to release Machine Learning on Johnny Paguro’s Museek later this month, with the release already available on the label’s Bandcamp page.

Check out his guide below!

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NYC Essentials: Layton Giordani’s Favorite Spots to Eat, Drink and Party

NYC’s Layton Giordani has enjoyed a meteoric rise in the last two years. A debut album Where it Begins on Drumcode in early 2017, was followed later that year with “Live Again”, his collaborative track with Danny Tenaglia, that was heralded as one of the year’s strongest techno records.

In 2018 he’s come up trumps with a three-way production with Adam Beyer and Green Velvet titled “Space Date” and this week he dropped “Phase II”, his first solo EP of the year on Drumcode. It’s a powerful four-track work with tracks highlighting gigs everywhere from Berghain to Amsterdam’s famous Gashouder.

From humble beginnings in his native NYC as an Output resident, to being thrust into the bustle of the European club and festival circuit, he’s enjoyed a stint living in Amsterdam, growing and developing over this time. All these experiences have had a fundamental influence on him and his music. The four-track EP Phase II represents a new chapter for this exciting talent.

Beyond music, Giordani’s passion runs deep for the Empire City. He shares his favourite go-to spots for eating, drinking and partying.

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