Nicky Siano is one of those people who you could sit and talk to for hours at a time and it would never be enough. The New York native has enough stories to fill 10 books about the history of dance music in this fair city and could name names for days.

Nicky started The Gallery in 1971 which was one of NYC’s first underground nightspots. It’s where Larry Levan and Frankie Knuckles got their first gigs, Grace Jones would come to dance all night and people could be whoever they wanted to be. Nicky is also credited as being the first DJ to mix and broke thousands of disco hits on The Gallery dancefloor. Continue reading →

Sean B. has worked tirelessly to revitalize our fair city’s underground gay night life scene. Since 1996 he’s thrown down at some of the NYC finest establishments including Cielo, Santo’s Party House, The Limelight, Element, Bar 169, Mr. Black, 205 Club, Webster Hall and Output. He’s also the resident DJ at Powerhouse and Xanadude and half the influential DJ duo, SPANK, who has been taking his sounds around the world.

He’s playing with friends The Carry Nation this Saturday night at Good Room (tickets available here) so we asked Sean to share five of his favorite tracks to get down to ahead of the party. Continue reading →

Palms Trax is a fairly new DJ to the scene but every release has left its mark. The British-born, Berlin based producer started experimenting in pad-driven Detroit workouts which has turned into his own house style, referencing old school Chicago nostalgia whilst coming laden with analogue textures and jacked up beats.

With releases on Dekmantel and Lobster Theremin, he has been using his home studio to create melodic synth lines and smooth, undulating drum patterns that recalls the likes of Legowelt, John Heckle, Tevo Howard, and Nu-Groove era Burrell Brothers. Continue reading →

Juju & Jordash were the first artist to put out a record on Dekmantel. Their record was the start of long relationship with the Amsterdam-based label, having released three albums with them and played at their festival and parties across the world.

Gal Aner and Jordan Czamanski, known professionally as Juju & Jordash, have known each other since the mid-90s through a shared love of jazz. They have been making music together since 2004 when they both moved to Amsterdam. Their jazz-influenced style of house music set the tone for all of Dekmantel’s releases, something a little off centre, something a little different, something no one else is doing in underground dance music. It was a bold choice for the first Dekmantel release but it worked. “We just couldn’t imagine that no one else wanted to release this. So we thought, ‘maybe we should release it.’ That’s actually when we first thought of doing a label,” label owners Thomas Martojo and Casper Tielrooij told Resident Advisor. Continue reading →

You can call In Flagranti many things but boring is not one of them. Sasa Crnobrnja and Alex Gloor met as fans of the pioneering cosmic scene that emerged from Italy during the early ’80′s and together they make and play music that is funk, rock, punk, afro, electronica, house, reggae, kraut, classic, blues and hillbilly.

Over the years they’ve released records on labels like RVNG and Gomma as well as their own label Codek. They use familiar disco samples combined with some old school analog electro synths to make music that will keep you on the dancefloor for hours. Continue reading →

The Doors mean a lot of things to a lot of people. Whether you were a fan of Jim Morrison mind-opening lyrics and leather pants, RayManzarek’s hypnotic keys and organ lines, John Densmore’s four by four beats or Robby Krieger’s blues riffs, they produced some of the best dirty rock’n’roll known to man.

This month marks the 45th Anniversary of The Doors’ last and most prolific album, ‘L.A. Woman’. Coming off the back of some serious turmoil for the band, it was a return to their roots and reaffirmed their love of blues-based rock’n’roll. Continue reading →

You never know what’s in Basic Soul Unit’s record bag. Depending on the night, he can throw down melodic techno, heavy jacking sounds, deep house, disco, and often a combination of these. Stuart’s strength as a DJ is his versatility and this is what makes his sets so fun, the unknown.

Hong Kong born and raised in Canada, Stuart Li aka has been steadily making his mark in underground electronic music circles since his first release in 2003. His diversity came from listening to Toronto’s college radio stations and attended after hours parties before working at Cosmos Records store, dealing vintage Jazz, Soul, Funk, Latin, Brazilian, Disco, House and Hip Hop. Continue reading →

“Soramimi” is defined as a mishearing or feigneddeafness. The NYC composer and producer uses this idea in her music to share narrative imagery, with an abstract sound illustrated by cerebral textures and dreamlike compositions. Soramimi brings a distinct fluency and gravity to the table of ambient and experimental techno.

The co­-owner of Dusk Notes record label is bringing her live set to Good Room on April 15 (tickets available here) which showcases her original compositions using outboard hardware synths and effects. We got in touch with Soramimi to find out what inspires her music and what she’s been into lately. Continue reading →