“Over the last few years, Tbilisi, a city of steep hills and curvy streets at the border of Europe and Asia, has become a new hotbed for underground dance music. Bassiani has played a leading role in this, but it's only one of several clubs that would be exceptional in any city—there's also Mitkvarze, Vitamin Cubes, Café Gallery and its sister venue, Didi Gallery, plus one that's just opened called Khidi. As time goes on, more and more house and techno DJs list the Georgian capital as one of their favorite places to play.

 

What makes it so good? First there are the basics: smartly booked clubs with excellent sound systems, passionate crowds and parties that go well past dawn. But there's also a more complex reality that is perhaps the scene's most important ingredient. History has not been kind to Tbilisi, "a city which has burned down 40 times in its history," according to The London Review of Books, and for which the last 25 years have been particularly dramatic. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Georgia's been the scene of two wars and years of abject poverty. And yet, over time it nurtured a devoted underground of DJs and promoters that, in the last few years, has flourished into something extraordinary, even more so because it represents such an exhilarating break from the past. 20 years ago Tbilisi barely had electricity; today, it has one of the best scenes for electronic music in the world.”

 

This is an excerpt from an article on Resident Advisor website by Will Lynch. 

You can read the full article here.

And here is what Vice and Låpsley explored in Tbilisi: