“There’s a lot of nothing going on in this city,” comments Ron Morelli, his common, blunt introduction to New York. Raised on punk and hardcore music in the ’90s, he quickly grasped the allure of stripped-down house and techno, and soon enough discovered that New York boasts a strong DIY electronic scene despite the disappearance of its once robust dance music culture. He founded his label, Long Island Electrical Systems—L.I.E.S. for short—in 2009 and has since been taking the dance music world by storm, releasing the work of an international constellation of underground artists, who each pay true homage to the gritty origins of house and techno.
As an employee of the Lower East Side’s used vinyl mecca A-1 Records, Ron can pick out limited pressings, obscure B-sides and bottom-of-the-bin gems with no sweat. In a similar fashion, he’s picked out some of New York’s best live venues, restaurants and record shops for Unlike. Here’s New York as it should be, done DIY and damn well funky.
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I work here, there’s only four of us who work at the store and we each have an equal part in running it. I take care of stocking all the dance music and some of the disco too.
Their East Village location is close to where I work. They serve some awesome, and cheap, cold spicy Chinese noodles. Their dumplings are also not to be missed.
The food is super good here. Chris Young, who opened this place, has been a long time New York DJ. It’s a great place to chill during the week and during the weekend you might find some really cool and intimate parties going on, like when Dam Funk played a set here.
Great Japanese place. It’s across the street form The Commodore and they basically serve up Japanese finger food. They’re always playing this one Brazilian album, and I’ve been wondering if I can swap them a mix of Brazilian music for a free meal.
Essentially this is a warehouse space, I played here with Traxx at a Mutual Dreaming party. It’s definitely a cool, small spot to party with your friends.
This brand new Greenpoint record store was launched with help from the guys behind the local indie label Captured Tracks.
I DJ here on occasion, and there’s always something pretty decent going on here. I like this place because you can do whatever the fuck you want to.
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