Dance music has found its place in Mumbai. It has permanently embedded itself into the hearts of this metropolis of dance music enthusiasts and anybody who had doubted this before July 18th 2013, I would have to sit them down and talk them through it. However, looking back, that Thursday night, which encompassed two of the biggest DJ’s of the world along with two bright talents from the city, stated out big and bold that dance music with all its facets is here to stay.

Submerge – one of India’s largest promotions & events company for dance music, brought together the mastermind from Munich - Jerome Isma-Ae and the legend from Manchester - Gareth Emery to Royalty, Mumbai to mark a night of dance music diversity delivered to absolute perfection. Where on one hand local talents Beatstatic (comprised of Suraj Nambiar a.k.a Jarus & Rachit Jobalia a.k.a Kroschild) and Willy warmed up the crowd to some lukewarm electro house and deep house tunes, Jerome Isma-Ae blasted the club with his careful selection of dance-floor smashers ranging from genres of progressive house and trance.

All that was left was for the birthday boy Gareth Emery to rock the crowd with some anthems ranging from house music to even some classical trance – a genre which put Gareth Emery on the dance music map. All in all, the night was a spectacular one, nothing short of one-of-those-festival-experiences with divergent sounds echoing long after the night had come to a close.

Hit past the break to read ahead on what went down when Jerome Isma-ae & Gareth Emery together gave Royalty, Mumbai a night to remember!

Talking about Jerome Isma-Ae, one can arguably say he is one of the finest DJ’s to emerge from Munich, Germany. For a man who has been on the dance music scene since as early as 1995, when he founded the popular electronic music project, “Future Funk” along with Marcel Krieg, Jerome is truly a veteran when it comes to taking over the decks and dance-floors.

Perhaps it was in 2002, when his remix of Nightcrawlers, ’Push The Feeling On’ which made it to #1 in the U.S. Billboard Dance Charts was his breakthrough worldwide, but his musical style has always been under a constant state of evolution. By pushing boundaries and exploring where music can take people, his ‘Underwater Love’ was voted Best Chill Out Track for the Beatport Music Awards in 2009.

Distinguishing his sound is that deep and dark rumbling sound followed by an epic harmony of beats, bass and synths, which will definitely take over your involuntary dancing skills! Sustaining a distinguishable feel to all his tracks, he still brings a lot of variety to the plate with ingenious creativity to all his productions. At Royalty, he curated a master set of progressive perfection with a careful assortment of the darkest and grooviest house melodies we have heard in a long time!

Gareth Emery is no stranger to dance-floors and clubs around the world, as he has cemented his place in the dance music fraternity as one of the Top DJ’s of current times with his signature sound and boundless energy as a producer and performer. Trained in jazz and piano, Gareth was initially a guitar player in a punk band in the mid-nineties. Exploring the world of trance music, he remixed The Shrink’s classic “Nervous Breakdown” which was released in early 2002. However, the track that truly put Gareth on the production map was under his moniker GTR called ‘Mistral’. Never destined to become an anthem, it was produced entirely on a laptop computer over the course of a two week holiday in Provence! Nevertheless, the sole CDR that Gareth sent to Paul van Dyk caused such a storm when van Dyk debuted it live on radio from the Nature One Festival, that Five AM records wasted no time in signing it, helping it to become a truly global trance anthem.

Today, besides producing top notch releases and remixes, Gareth is the highest ranked British DJ as per the coveted DJ Mag Polls, owns a nightclub and music label under the name ‘Garuda’ and produces the ‘Gareth Emery presents’ & ‘Gareth Emery Podcast’-which is widely regarded as one of the first dance music podcasts. His set at Royalty comprised of furious energy with anthems, mashups and classic trance tracks as he celebrated his 33rd birthday with the audience in ceremonial fashion.

Proceedings began as early as 9 pm as local boys Beatstatic took over the decks and showered some lukewarm electro house numbers. The interiors of the club had been pimped up to a whole new level with some extra projection screens banked on either side of the console, some trippy visual mapping and some wild graffiti and artwork on the ceiling. Crowds simmered in as they battled the unpredictable traffic and seasonal rains to make it in as early as possible.

At around 10 pm, resident DJ Willy took to the console and began to carefully shift gears with some seamless deep house and progressive. With tracks like ’Undercover’ by Adam Banks, ’Be Mine’ by Lane 8 and a magical remix by Fedde le Grand of Sono’s ’Keep Control’, he kept audiences who were waiting at the bar grooving to the melodies.

Jerome Isma-ae could now be seen hovering around the decks waiting patiently to take over the magic, already spelled out by Willy and sure enough at around 10:40 pm, Jerome took over the decks and very creatively, without that signature break stutter on which most DJ’s love to end their sets, he blended his own selection of ‘Sun Rising’ by Alen Milivojevic with Willy’s final track for the night, the alluring ‘Aire’ by Oliver Huntemann & Dubfire ensuring the rhythm and progression of the night remained intact.

Jerome attacked the crowd almost immediately with ‘Bang!’, his recent collaboration with Alex M.O.R.P.H. His dark and progressive sounds surrounded and embodied each and everyone of us as the visual mapping and additional ambiance by Sumberge and Micromax only added to the surrealism in the sounds. The heavy bass punches were being lauded by the crowd as almost everyone in the club ceremoniously raised their hands to his tracks like ‘Running up that hill’ a vocal delight with Placebo. Dropping in some club classics such as Eric Prydz’s famous take on Depeche Mode’s ’Personal Jesus’ and Above & Beyond’s anthemic ’Walter White’ , he made sure everyone in the room was in the same state of energy throughout his set.

From his own massive-production-cupboard, he lined up tracks like ’Thrill Me’ with Max Freegrant and also his very recent collaboration with the Sinai man Ilan Bluestone ’Under my skin’. Magic was in the air as tracks like ’Fade Into You (Jerome Isma-ae & Ilan Bluestone Remix)’ by Vinny Troia feat.  Jaidene Veda further enthralled this crowd as the numbers just kept increasing. Jerome kept the hands raised and fists pumping, without playing any major club anthems-all on the strength of his carefully orchestrated track selections.

All that was left was for the Brit to take over and suspend any notion of “that was enough dancing for one night”! Sure enough, at the stroke of the midnight hour, with a final beauty from Jerome which was the deep and delightful ‘Afterthought (Soundprank’s Deep 04 Mix)’ by Anjunadeep regulars Parker & Hanson, Gareth approached the decks with arms raised and announced, “…Mumbai, get ready..coz we’re gonna have a f**kin amazing time tonight!”

Starting off with Tiesto & Kyler England’s ’Take me’, Gareth peppered in some current anthems such as Basto’s ’Dance With me’, the magician Ashley Wallbridge’s ’Yin-Yang’, Bingo Players bomb ’Out of my mind’ and W & W’s latest romper ’Thunder’. Keeping the crowd jumping and screaming for more, he unleashed a Showtek double whammy, a collaboration with Justin Prime called, ‘Cannonball’ and another with Noisecontrollers titled ’Get Loose (Tiesto Remix)’. He then proceeded to test out his track with Krewella which still is under the working title of ’Lights & Thunder’ to an amazing response.

Turning the club into a Karoake bar when he dropped Zedd feat. Foxes record breaking track, ‘Clarity’ and an absolute epic mashup with Knife Party’s ’LRAD’, he further kept those throats screeching with crowd favourite, Armin van Buuren feat. Trevor Guthrie’s ’This Is What It Feels Like (W&W Remix)’. He then quickly superimposed that with the Beatport chart topper, Martin Garrix and his ’Animals’.

What makes Gareth one of the most reputed DJ’s of all time is his ability to seamlessly blend in various genres to infuse balanced energy to the crowd, and that’s precisely what happened. With his own hard-hitting release, ‘The Saga’ was infused with Henrik B, Niklas Gustavsson & Peter Johansson’s ’Echoes’ or when Hardwell feat Amba Shepherd’s vocal masterpiece ’Apollo (Dash Berlin 4am remix)’ was morphed with his belter, ‘Tokyo’, Gareth was completely seamless in his transitions. A complete surprise track that was played was Tiesto’s ’Maximal Crazy’. Now how long has it been since we’ve heard that one!

With so many anthems and remixes being showered on this crowd, the night would have surely been incomplete without some engaging mashups. Soon enough, Gareth obliged all present with an array of old and new, acapella’s and basslines with mashups crossing over genres to create havoc on the floor.

With composites such as the super Eric Prydz vs. Audien ’Every Day Wayfarer (Tritonal Mashup)’ and a galactic mashup of his own collaboration with Indian duo Brute Force ’Arrival’ with Zedd & Matthew Koma’s ’Spectrum’, Gareth blew the roof off when he dropped two more mashups involving tracks spanning nearly a decade between them! Starting off with that famed drop of Kill The Buzz’s ’Party Hard’ he then dropped his recent worldwide chartbuster, ‘Meet Her In Miami’ which is a rework of the Da Hool classic with the legendary acapella of Chemical Brothers ’Hey Girl, Hey Boy’.

If that mashup was technically insufficient to our needs, he then went on to add another culinary delight with Zombie Nation’s ’Kernkraft 400 (Chris Schweizer Bootleg Mix)’ and a trap extravaganza of Benny Benassi pres. The Biz’s ’Satisfaction (RL Grime Remix)’. I swear, people were head banging from ceiling to floor when that came down!

With glow sticks strapped around their hands and necks, smiles as wide as the edges of the dance-floor, friends on their shoulders raising their hands and that unrestrained dancing energy, the crowd at Royalty could have been superimposed onto any major festival around the world and you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference! Gareth acknowledged this from time to time as he constantly raised his hands in adoration realizing this was turning out to be on hell of a birthday party. He further added some anthems to his set with his masterfully combined ’On a Metropolis Day’ with Oceanlab, Daddy’s Groove & Dino Lenny’s, ‘Walking On Air’ , Hardwell’s anthem ’Spaceman’ and his own jaw dropping track, ‘Concrete Angel’ feat. Christina Novelli.