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MIAMI BLOG: DAY FIVE

We spend our final day dancing at Last Resort

Day five dawns in a flurry of anticipation, as we’re up and at ‘em at a reasonable hour, ready for our last day of work and play in the Miami sun. First up, we’re off to interview the Queen of the Australian dance scene (for an upcoming Oz themed feature), Nina Las Vegas in a quaint, Art Deco apartment on the tip of South Beach. Pastel coloured low-rises and luridly hued sports cars whip past us on the drive over, before we eventually pull up outside Nina’s private villa.

“Welcome to the real life of a DJ” she laughs as we walk in. The apartment is small but light with clothes and DJ gear strewn all over. Her roommate, Anna Lunoe — a fellow Aussie who we met on Friday at Sweat It Out — is cooking up some tasty looking avocado on toast. Famed for hosting Saturday night radio show, Mix Up Exclusives on Australian station Triple J, Nina is off on her first US tour this year after almost a decade of domination down under.

Her and Anna are hitting American mega event Ultra Music Festival later, to check out their buddy Skrillex’s set. Unfortunately, DJ Mag has to give Ultra a miss since we’ve T-ed up two more interviews — one with Oliver Dollar and one with Polish production/DJ duo, Catz N Dogz — that will see us scurrying about town for the rest of the day. After snapping a few choice pics in a leafy alcove, we bid our goodbyes to Nina and jump into a taxi, ready to relocate to the Wynwood building downtown.

Miami’s downtown area has long been renowned as a hotbed for up and coming Miami creatives, no more so than in The Arts District where we’re currently headed. A twenty-minute taxi and we’re there, catching Mr Dollar (real name Oliver Siebert) for a quick pow-wow and some more press pictures. Best known for his massive Defected Records hit ‘Pushing On’, we chat with Oliver about his plans for the summer, before bouncing to meet up with Catz N Dogz (pictured below) at famed Miami closing party, Last Resort. 

It’s already kicking off when we arrive as the familiar sound of Anja Schneider’s Mobilee imprint ripples pristinely from the speakers. Hosted in the car park of the Mana Wynwood creative complex, the location is suitably desolate to make noise complaints a non-issue, as people languidly trickle in as the sun sinks low.

We chat to Catz N Dogz about their forthcoming LP, their gig at London’s Oval Space next weekend, plus the new boutique festival they’re set to throw in a Polish castle this summer. We snap some pics against a graffiti-covered wall before heading back inside, lapping up the final moments of Danny Daze’s techno set. The bikini-clad congregation are looking slightly bemused, as Danny drops Floating Points’ sublime acid jazz odyssey, ‘Nuits Sonores’ — it’s a far cry from the tropical house and EDM heard on South Beach. Brit favourite, Maya Jane Coles is next to spin, selecting a tight fusion of banging analogue jams and garage-influenced club cuts before we head back to Miami Beach in the closing darkness.

We keep with DJ Mag tradition and eat our final meal at Moshi Moshi, the hip South Beach sushi haunt that has become a WMC must-do for industry insiders. We order a belly-busting three courses before slinking off to our hotel beds for one final time. See you next year Miami!