RESET launches with My Favorite Robot

Canadian DJ collective My Favorite Robot dropped in on Dubai for a gig to launch the RESET series at one of my favorite house music venues: Story Rooftop Lounge.

Awesome opening sets by Dubai-based DJs Somalie (top left) and Daylomar (top right) gave the early half of the night a peppy mood as party goers milled in (bottom).

MFR's Jared Simms headlined, serving up some very eclectic electronic music replete with ethereal effects and rich layers.

10th birthday of WARPED celebrated with Monoloc

Monoloc doing this thing

WARPED, one of Dubai's oldest electronic music institutions, celebrated 10 years (and that's a lot in Dubai years) of powering the city's techno scene, in an all-evening-all-night party at underground haven Casa Latina this weekend. A back-to-back lineup of local genre heavyweights led into a finale set by visiting German techno star Monoloc. All stops seemed to have been pulled to set up this one, and the mood was high all night. Happy birthday, WARPED.

DIGITAL trance night launch at Mansion

Bravely scheduling a full-on EDM-o-rama on a school night, Dubai's Audio Project and other collaborators launched a Saturday weekly trance party they call "DIGITAL" at the Mansion club in Melia Hotel.

Despite the Saturday night timing, quite a few trance fans showed up and stayed till late. Probably because DJs Usef Nader and Barrie Birse kept up a strong momentum through the night with seamless, high-energy music, thanks to which I too stayed longer than I originally intended. A really pretty elevated DJ platform with front and rear visual effect screens helps one forget the rebar Borg cube behind the dance floor. Good all-trance music with a mostly trance-friendly ambiance is rare here, so this one is a raver's reason to rejoice.

audiOasis DnB Night with Friction

On Friday, Drum & Bass and Dubstep group audiOasis celebrated their move to a new venue, The Q Underground, by bringing in DnB deity Friction of BBC Radio 1 and Shogun Audio. They managed to get not just a great headliner, but also the support of Red Bull, Pioneer and Virgin Megastore.

I got there at 10:30pm. The masses were starting to trickle in around that time, and audiOasis DJs had begun warming the place up with a stream of very good DnB. And with the low ceiling of a converted parking lot, the mostly open layout, and the "glitter black" painted walls and ceiling around and over concrete flooring, it's obvious why this is one of the coolest venues in the neighborhood.

A couple of warm-up sets later, Friction was at the booth, making appropriate use of the massive audio setup in place for the event.

In keeping with the very fair entry policy, the crowd was clearly composed of a lot of genuine and energetic enthusiasts. Many of them went nuts on the floor, especially to Friction's foundation-shaking set.