{"id":132204,"date":"2026-02-13T06:41:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T06:41:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/132204\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T06:41:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T06:41:18","slug":"new-yorks-golden-age-of-clubbing-is-reborn-at-refuge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/132204\/","title":{"rendered":"New York\u2019s \u2018golden age\u2019 of clubbing is reborn at Refuge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Heading inside is another wormhole.\u00a0Scott Zacharias<\/a> is laying down a soundtrack of raw, hypnotic techno to open, with dancers feeling their way into the party, swaying to the low-slung beats in a haze of palo santo incense. Moments of airy transcendence emerge from the murk, with flickering melodies, scuzzy electro and punchy snares drawing the crowd into the DJ\u2019s thrall. It\u2019s music that comes alive through a high-quality soundsystem, enabling all the intricate details and textural qualities of the records to be heard and felt, and Refuge delivers some of the best club sound we\u2019ve experienced. Towering speaker stacks, built like pyramids that the average NBA player could climb inside, flank the dancefloor\u2019s corners and envelope the room in entrancing sonic vibrations. The tempo is at 108 BPM when Brendan M Gillen, AKA\u00a0BMG<\/a>, the founder of Interdimensional Transmissions and No Way Back, takes the reins at 2:AM. He gradually guides the party from atmospheric to throbbing, pushing through sleazy basslines to frantic melody stabs and the punchy, flanged synths of the New Romantic era. \u201cThe crowd was totally up for it; they were right with every transformation, paying super attention,\u201d says BMG, describing the soundsystem as \u201cimmaculate\u201d. \u201cNew York is a city that has a lot of great sound,\u201d he continues. \u201cFrom my experience, this is the best soundsystem in New York right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m not designing sound that attacks you, I’m designing sound that embraces you,\u201d says Shorty of his approach. His attention to detail is second to none. During test events while the club was under construction, he had a different soundsystem in place called KONG. \u201cAnything I do, it symbolises strength,\u201d Shorty notes of his naming choices. After seven events, he got to work on some changes, then after seven more, he decided an entirely new system was needed. \u201cI told John, I gotta build a whole new soundsystem. They thought I was nuts,\u201d Shorty says. \u201cHe goes, \u2018but how much better is it gonna get?\u2019. It’s gonna get\u00a0a lot better.\u201d He stresses that last part with steely conviction. With a track record that ensures deference to his expertise, he started designing and building a new soundsystem from scratch. The process took three months, with the result given the name REX (the Latin word for \u2018king\u2019). \u201cIt\u2019s a four-point analog soundsystem with a centre bass horn and fill speakers that fly above the stacks up high in the ceiling, and that basically gives me a never-ending reproduction of sound which makes it sound bigger than life,\u201d explains Shorty. \u201cThere’s no digital processing, so it allows it to be very musical and very pure, with no degradation or elements missing. It\u2019s got a lot of finesse and it’s real gentle and emotional.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s so true to the late age of disco, which people don’t necessarily understand how high fidelity disco was compared to how low fidelity our [’90s] rave experience was. They were much more serious about sound,\u201d notes BMG.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA proper analog soundsystem changes the entire vibe and experience for the guests and the DJ,\u201d adds Dimatteo. \u201cHaving a soundsystem that is just so clear and so perfect, even when you hear tracks that you know well, you’re gonna hear parts of it that you didn’t hear previously. It creates those \u2018wow\u2019 moments at the club.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n