Now I am painfully aware that the list of names I just threw out aren't exactly on my top ten list of acts to see - as easy as it might be to turn into a huge Arabian Gino here and wear white suits with giant brown sunglasses all day and night, I'm not there just yet. A quick walk through the CD section of one of the giant Virgin MegaStores here reveals the essence of mainstream musical tastes - racks and racks of dj and club compilations out of Ibiza and the UK, mid-tempo vocal house, high energy block rockin' club beats, and a reasonable sprinkling of American hip hop and r'n'b. Electro and d'n'b are virtually non-existent, and even artists I would consider mainstream electronic such as Underworld and The Chemical Brothers are slim pickings. Call it a symptom of the image-conscious and highly-consumerist mainstream culture - but the majority of music listeners are only interested in what is considered the latest and greatest, promoters and music stores are just following suit.
Something like 80% of the 1.6 million population of Dubai are expatriates, and of that less than half are from the west. That leaves a population of maybe 500,000 highly transient people to support the electronic music scene - barely enough to develop a subculture of any critical mass. So where do you go to get good music here? Fortunately I've already found the one and only vinyl shop in Dubai, called Ohm Records, it's only ten minutes walk from our apartment. Unlike Virgin, they carry a decent selection of electro breaks, techno, and hiphop, they also throw on some of the more interesting club nights including the Paul Van Dyke show tonight (with some interesting electro djs filling out the rest of the lineup).
There are a couple of decent clubs here that also double as venues for the big DJs that roll through town. Peppermint (locating in the Fairmont Hotel), Trilogy (see photo below of outdoor rooftop terrace), iBo, and The Apartment come to mind as the big players. In terms of the music, crowds, and vibe, the clubs are Ibiza in the middle east, just on a smaller scale. Although the venues may be great, for me at least it's about the music so you're more likely to catch me there on one of the one-off parties with a good name in from out of town rather than at the huge pure mega club anthem thursday night bashes.
